RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 


MRS.  WILLIAM  HOWARD  TAFT 


of 


BY 

MRS.  WILLIAM  HOWARD  TAFT 


WITH  NUMEROUS  ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 

(Eompattg 


1914 


COPYRIGHT,  1914 
BY  THE  BUTTERICK  PUBLISHING  CO. 

COPYRIGHT,  1914 
BY  DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 


"7C: 

\ 


FOREWORD 

I  wish  to  express  my  grateful  acknowledgment  to 
Eleanor  Franklin  Egan  and  my  daughter  for  their  valued 
assistance  in  the  preparation  for  publication  of  these  Recol- 
lections. 

HELEN  HERRON  TAFT. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 


INTRODUCTORY 1 

Cincinnati — City  of  Birth  and  Early  Memories.  Educa- 
tional and  Musical  Advantages.  Childhood  in  Large 
Family  on  Moderate  Income.  Meeting  Mr.  Taft — Politi- 
cal Turmoil.  First  trip  to  Washington  to  visit  President 
and  Mrs.  Hayes.  Social  Gaieties  and  Serious  Under- 
takings. Engagement — Summer  in  the  Adirondacks. 
Marriage— Trip  Abroad.  Mr.  Taft's  Father  and  Mother. 
First  home — "Satisfactory  though  Mortgaged." 

CHAPTER  II 

CINCINNATI  AND  WASHINGTON 21 

The  Superior  Court — First  Doubt  as  to  Desirability  of 
Judicial  Career.  Mr.  Taft's  Embarrassing  Truthfulness. 
My  son  Robert.  Solicitor  General — Move  to  Washington. 
Mr.  William  M.  Evarts.  Washington  Society  Twenty- 
five  Years  Ago.  My  Daughter  Helen.  The  Federal 
Bench.  Youngest  Child.  Tranquil  Years.  The  Cincin- 
nati Orchestra.  Spanish-American  War — Results  to  the 
Taft  Family. 

CHAPTER  III 
To  THE  PHILIPPINES 39 

The  Second  Philippine  Commission.  Army  Transport 
Hancock.  Honolulu.  "Aloha  Oe!"  Yokohama.  Mr. 
Taft  in  a  Jinrikisha.  His  Size  Interests  the  Japanese. 
Audience  with  the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  Japan — A 
Question  of  Clothes.  I  Decide  to  Remain  in  Japan  for 
the  summer.  The  Hancock  to  Manila. 

CHAPTER  IV 
IN  JAPAN 65 

Keeping  House  in  Yokohama — In  Quarantine  with 
Measles.  A  Japanese  Menage.  Fascinating  Oriental 
Sounds — Alluring  Shops.  First  Letter  from  Mr.  Taft.  A 
bit  of  Philippine  History.  Miyanoshita — Japanese  Inns — 
The  Darkest  Night.  A  Refugee  from  China— Boxer  In- 
surrection. Joseph  did  not  Commit  Suicide;  He  was 
only  Learning  to  Sing.  More  Letters.  Mr.  Bryan's  Com- 
plicating Policy.  To  Manila, 
vii 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  V 

FIRST  IMPRESSIONS  OF  MANILA 91 

The  China  Sea.  Manila  Bay — Strange  Scenes  and 
Strange  Peoples.  First  Home  in  Manila — "Getting  Used" 
to  my  Environment.  Seventy  Thousand  American  Troops. 
General  Arthur  MacArthur — Social  Coolness.  Intrigue — 
Assassinations — Problems.  Progress  of  Pacification.  A 
Typhoon.  American  Presidential  Campaign.  Civil  and 
Military  Rule.  September  first — The  Commission  begins 
to  Exercise  Authority. 

CHAPTER  VI 
A  STRANGE  ENVIRONMENT 118 

El  costumbres  del  pals — Employes  and  Parientes.  A 
Pair  of  Black  Ponies — A  Runaway — Filipino  Coachmen. 
Charlie's  Playmates.  Shopping — Saloons.  Manila  Society. 
"He  may  be  a  brother  of  William  H.  Taft,  but  he  ain't 
no  friend  of  mine!"  A  Filipino  Call.  Presents.  Amer- 
ican Patriotism.  Friars  and  Friars'  Lands.  A  Mo- 
mentous Decision. 

CHAPTER  VII 
"  DAYS  OF  THE  EMPIRE 142 

Unrest  and  Uncertainty — Guerilla  Warfare.  Re-elec- 
tion of  Mr.  McKinley.  Optimistic  in  the  Face  of  Chaos. 
Christmas — Eighty  in  the  Shade.  A  New  Year's  Recep- 
tion— Silk  Hats  and  Frock  Coats.  The  Federal  Party  and 
the  Peace  Movement — Washington's  Birthday.  First 
Visit  to  a  Provincial  Town.  Establishment  of  Civil  Gov- 
ernment. Mr.  Taft  First  Civil  Governor. 

CHAPTER  VIII 
AN  HISTORIC  TRIP 156 

Through  the  Southern  Islands.  Establishing  Pro- 
vincial Governments.  A  Test  of  Endurance — Filipino 
Bands — Banquetes  and  Bailes — the  Rigodon.  Moroland. 
Aguinaldo — Colonel  Frederick  Funston  of  "the  Suicide 
Squad."  Zamboanga — Cottabato — the  Gulf  of  Davao — 
Surigao— A  Perilous  Journey.  Cebu.  Sorsogon — A  Riot 
of  Hospitality.  "The  Sacred  Torch  of  Liberty." 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE  WILD  MEN'S  COUNTRY 182 

Into  Northern  Luzon — the  Wild  Men's  Country.  A 
Spanish  Steamer.  General  and  Mrs.  J.  Franklin  Bell.  A 
Side  Trip.  Impedimenta  and  Military  Discipline.  An 
Amazing  Summit.  Where  no  White  Woman  ever  was 
before  Igorrotes — Human  Skulls  as  House  Decorations — 
Rice  Teraces.  Down  a  Long  Trail.  Baguio — Our  $2,- 
500,000  Road.  Necessity  for  Haste, 
viii 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  X 

GOVERNOR  TAFT 206 

The  Inauguration  of  Governor  Taft.  Two  Thousand 
Guests.  Moving  to  Malacanan  Palace — Social  Activities. 
The  Governor's  Working  Day.  General  Chaffee— Con- 
tinued Differences  of  Opinion.  General  Corbin.  The 
Assassination  of  President  McKinley — Dark  Days.  ^  Mr. 
Taft  and  President  Roosevelt.  Balangiga.  A  Trip  to 
China— Mr.  Taft  111— Hurried  Return.  Ordered  Home 
on  Leave1 — An  Earthquake.  We  Sail  on  Christmas  Eve. 

CHAPTER  XI 
A  TRIP  TO  ROME 233 

Some  Unhappy  Memories.  Business  in  Washington — 
The  Friar  Lands  Question.  A  Mission  to  Rome.  Left 
Behind  but  Follow  Shortly.  Position  and  Character  of 
Commission — Complications  and  Embarrassments.  Cardi- 
nal Rampolla.  Pope  Leo  XIII.  A  Brilliant  Society. 
Vatican  Politics.  An  Audience  with  the  Pope.  Vallom- 
brosa.  Gifts  from  the  Pope.  Unfinished  Negotiations — 
Mr.  Taft  to  Manila.  Switzerland. 

CHAPTER  XII 
LAST  DAYS  IN  THE  PHILIPPINES 251 

A  Great  Demonstration.  Cholera — Rinderpest — Fam- 
ine— Turmoil.  The  Church  Schism — Aglipay.  Arch- 
bishop Guidi.  Ladrones  and  Assassins.  Taft  declines 
the  Supreme  Bench — Mr.  Roosevelt  Insists — Popular  Pro- 
test. A  Letter  from  Mr.  Roosevelt.  Called  to  Washing- 
ton as  Secretary  of  War.  A  Farewell  Fete — The  Doge 
of  Venice  and  his  Lady — Regretful  Good-byes. 

CHAPTER  XIII 

SECRETARY  OF  WAR 274 

Contrasted  Attitudes — Guests  of  a  Nation  and  "Just 
Nobody."  Settling  down  in  Washington — Difficulties  in 
living  up  to  an  Exalted  Office — Life  of  a  "Cabinet 
Lady."  The  Panama  Canal— Trip  to  Panama.  Mr. 
Taft,  a  Congressional  Party  and  Miss  Alice  Roosevelt. 
Summer  in  England.  Intervention  in  Cuba — "Those  Aw- 
ful Twenty  Days." 

CHAPTER  XIV 

BUSY   YEARS 302 

"The  Three  Musketeers."  A  Political  Campaign— the 
Rush  of  Life.  The  Supreme  Bench  again.  A  Presiden- 
tial "Boom."  Mr.  Taft  not  Interested.  I  misunderstand 
Mr.  Roosevelt.  Athos  and  Porthos.  "Sitting  on  the  Lid." 
Agitated  Days.  Growing  Enthusiasm.  Murray  Bay. 
Starting  Around  the  World — Yellowstone  Park — A  Sun- 
day game  of  Bridge.  A  Taste  of  Campaign  Work, 
ix 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XV 
A  HURRIED  TRIP  AROUND  THE  WORLD .  3*3 

Japan— Shanghai— Manila.  Opening  of  the  first  Phil- 
ippine Assembly.  Trips  and  Entertainments.  Vladivo- 
stok. Across  Siberia.  Moscow— St.  Petersburg— Berlin. 
A  Shopping  Expedition  and  a  Perilous  Night.  The 
Steamship  President  Grant.  Return  to  the  United  States. 
Nomination  for  the  Presidency — Political  Campaign- 
Election. 

CHAPTER  XVI 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 324 

The  Evening  of  March  Third,  1909.  A  Dinner  Party 
at  the  White  House.  A  Stormy  Night.  Washington 
Ice-bound  and  Isolated.  "I  always  said  it  would  be  a 
cold  day  when  I  got  to  be  President  of  the  United  States." 
The  Inauguration.  At  Home  in  the  White  House — A 
Brief  Inspection — The  McKim  Restoration.  The  In- 
augural Ball— A  Brilliant  Scene.  "Aunt  Delia."  The 
End  of  the  Greatest  Day. 

CHAPTER  XVII 
THE  WHITE  HOUSE •  347 

Mistress  of  the  White  House — Domestic  Responsibilities 
— Some  Innovations.  The  White  House  staff — Furniture 
and  Porcelains.  The  President's  Hospitality.  A  Diplo- 
matic Tea.  Forms  and  Precedents.  My  First  Dinner 
Party.  Various  Entertainments.  Potomac  Drive.  De- 
lightful Spring  Evenings.  The  Charm  of  the  Home  of 
Presidents.  A  Passing  Glimpse  of  Mental  Pictures. 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
SOME  WHITE  HOUSE  FORMALITIES 365 

A  Long  Illness.  Garden  Parties — The  First  Disappoint- 
ment— Subsequent  Success.  The  Nation's  Summer  Capi- 
tal— A  Question  of  Privacy — The  Secret  Service  Men. 
The  Washington  Social  Season.  State  Dinners  and  Re- 
ceptions. First  Cabinet  Dinner.  The  New  Year's  Re- 
ception. "Behind  the  line."  Cutting  down  the  Lists. 
The  Diplomatic  Reception  and  Dinner.  Serving  Re- 
freshments. Various  Demands. 

CHAPTER  XIX 
CONCLUSION 382 

Mr.  Roosevelt  Returns  from  Africa — Calls  at  Beverly 
— An  Agreeable  Meeting.  A  Cruise  on  the  Mayflower. 
The  President  of  Chili.  A  "Whirlwind"  Existence.  A 
Cabinet  House  Party.  Fitting  Charlie  out  in  Long  Trous- 
ers.^  Helen's  Debut.  Our  Silver  Wedding.  Renomi- 
nation.  Plans  for  a  Quiet  Future.  An  Expression  from 
Mr.  Taft. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Mrs.   William  Howard   Taft    .......  Frontispiece 


PAGE 


Mrs.  Taft's  childhood  home  on  Pike  Street,  in  Cincinnati  .      .       4 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Williamson  Herron,  Mrs.  Taft's  father 

and     mother 8 

Members  of  the  salon.     Mr.  Taft  in  the  centre  with  the  au- 
thor at  his  right .12 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  William  Howard  Taft  at  the  time  of  their 

marriage 16 

Mrs.    Taft   with    Robert    and   Helen,   when    Mr.    Taft   was 

Solicitor-General .26 

Charlie  Taft  when  he  went  to  the  Philippines  .....     36 

Nikko.     An  ancient  cryptomeria  avenue  and  a  glimpse  of  the 

famous    temples .      .     52 

Entrance  to  the  Imperial  Palace  gardens  in  Tokyo   ...     56 

The  State  Dining-Room  of  the  White  House,  showing  tapestry 

presented  to  Mrs.  Taft  by  the  Empress  of  Japan  ...     62 

Helen  Taft  in  Japanese  costume 76 

Mrs.  Taft  in  formal  Filipina  costume go 

A  carved  Nara  or  Philippine  mahogany  bed,  now  in  Mr.  Taft's 

room  at  New  Haven 98 

A  typical  Philippine  river  scene  and  some  Filipino  laundry 

work 104 

(Left  to  right)  General  Wright,  Mr.  Taft  and  Judge  Ide,  as 

Philippine     Commissioners 118 

A  typical  Filipino  menu  and  place  card 148 

Triumphal   arch   at   Bataan 152 

Filipino  members  of  the  organising  party  enjoying  afternoon 

repose  on  the  deck  of  the  Sumner 158 

The  Sultan  of  Sulu  boarding  the  Sumner^  followed  by  Mr. 

Arthur  Fergusson,  Spanish  secretary  to  the  Commission  .    166 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

A  Moro  datu  with  his  retinue,  and  the  favourite  wife  of  a  datu 

with    her    maids-in-waiting 170 

Picturesque  bead  bedecked  Bogobos  of  the  Davao  country  .      .176 

Philippine  non-Christians:     A  Bon  toe  Igorrote    (top  left);  a 

Moro  and  two  Kalinga  chiefs  (with,  shields)    ....    182 

On  the  long  trail  in  Northern  Luzon.     Mrs.  Taft  second  from 

the     left 186 

Mr.  Taft  and  Charlie  enjoying  their  favourite  exercise  .      .      .186 

An  Igorrote  Head  Dance  and  a  company  of  cargodores  with 

their  dogs  which  are  to  be  killed  for  food 190 

Views  of  the  extraordinary  Igorrote  rice  terraces.     Practically 

all  of  the  wild  men's  country  is  cultivated  in  this  manner  .    192 

Igorrote  chief  proudly  displaying  his  house  decorations  of  hu- 
man skulls  and  carabao  horns 196 

Bontoc  Igorrotes  with  ganzas  showing  handles  made  of  human 

jaw  bones 196 

Benguet   Road   before   and   after   completion.     Not   the   most 

thrilling  curve  on  this  spectacular  highway         *  200 

The  Zigzag.     How  the  Benguet  Road  climbs  to  an  altitude  of 

over  5,000  feet  in  six  miles 204 

Mr.  Taft  taking  the  oath  of  office  as  first  American  Governor 

of  the  Philippine  Islands 208 

Two  views  of  Malacanan  Palace.     The  first  picture  shows  the 

wide,  roofless  veranda  over  the  Pasig  River   .      .      .      .214 

Scenes  attending  Governor  Taft's  arrival  in  Manila  after  his 

first    absence 250 

Arch  erected  by  the  Partido  Federal  representing  Filipina  offer- 
ing another  star  to  the  American  flag 258 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Taft  with  members  of  their  family  and  staff  in- 
cluding Major  Noble,  aide  (at  left),  and  Mr.  Fred  C. 
Carpenter,  private  secretary  (right),  in  costumes  worn  at 
the  Venetian  Carnival 270 

Mr.  Taft  and  Colonel  Goethals,  in  Panama   .      .      .      .      .   290 

(From  left  to  right]  Mrs.  Jaime  de  Veyra,  Mrs.  Taft,  Gov- 
ernor Smith,  Mrs.  Smith,  Mr.  Taft,  Mr.  Sergio  Osmefia, 
Speaker  of  the  Philippine  Assembly,  and  members  of  the 
Assembly  in  the  Ayuntamiento,  Manila 312 

The  White  House  as  it  looked  on  the  evening  of  the  Fourth 

of   March,    1909 .      .         324 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Taft  returning  to  the  White  House  after  Mr. 

Taft's  inauguration 330 

The  private  dining-room  of  the  White  House,  and  the  family 

sitting-room  at  the  end  of  the  long  upstairs  corridor     .      .   334 

Two  White  House  bedrooms  showing  fine  old  colonial  beds     .  338 

Two  corners  of  the  White  House  kitchen 350 

The   East   Room 356 

Mrs.   Taft  on   the   Potomac   Drive     ...          ....  360 

The  south  Portico  from  the  end  of  the  garden 364 

The  White  House  garden  and  Washington's  Monument  from 

the  south  Portico 368 

The  Taft  cottage  at  Beverly,  Massachusetts 372 

The  crescent  table  in  the  State  Dining-Room  arranged  for  the 

Diplomatic  Dinner 376 

Mrs.  Taft's  own  picture  of  the  White  House 380 

The   long   eastern   corridor   through  which   guests    arrive   for 

state   functions 388 

The  main  stairway  leading  to  the  President's  private  apart- 
ments     .....     ... 388 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 

CINCINNATI,  the  city  of  my  birth  and  early  memories, 
was,  in  the  'sixties,  about  as  begrimed  and  noisy  and  alto- 
gether unattractive  as  any  place  well  could  be;  yet  it  pos- 
sessed certain  attributes  which  really  entitled  it  to  the  proud 
designation  of  "The  Queen  City  of  the  West." 

It  was  prosperous;  it  had  hardly  yet  been  surpassed  in 
prosperity  by  Chicago;  Cleveland  was  not  even  spoken  of 
as  a  rival;  and  in  many  ways  it  was  the  most  important 
centre  west  of  New  York  and  east  of  the  Mississippi. 

It  owed  its  early  development  principally  to  its  advan- 
tageous location.  It  lay  on  the  great  central  route  from 
the  East  to  the  West,  which  runs  from  Baltimore  and  Wash- 
ington to  Cumberland  and  over  the  Alleghenies  to  Pitts- 
burg,  thence  by  the  Ohio  River  to  Cincinnati  and  on  west  to 
St.  Louis  and  south  to  New  Orleans.  It  had  an  important 
trade  with  New  Orleans  and  drew  commerce  from  a  large 
territory  to  the  north.  But  whatever  else  may  be  said  of 
it,  its  most  devoted  citizen  could  not  claim  that  Cincinnati 
was  beautiful.  Its  buildings  were  unlovely;  its  streets 
were  badly  paved  and  as  badly  kept;  and  it  lay  under  a 
pall  of  soft  coal  smoke  which  left  its  sooty  mark  upon  every- 
thing— inhabitants  included. 

Yet,  ugly  as  it  was,  the  city  boasted  an  unusual  society. 
During  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  many  young 
men  of  good  stock  and  great  ability,  drawn  by  the  promise 
of  rapid  advancement,  had  moved  to  Cincinnati  from  all 
parts  of  the  East  and  South;  New  Jersey,  New  England, 
Virginia  and  Kentucky  contributing,  perhaps,  the  greatest 
number.  There  were  many  families  of  wealth  and  cul- 
ture which,  without  parade  or  display,  maintained  fine 
homes  and  dispensed  a  generous  hospitality.  The  suburbs, 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

East  Walnut  Hills,  Mt.  Auburn  and  Clifton,  on  the  heights 
to  the  north  and  east,  were  famous  for  their  beautiful  coun- 
try places. 

Then  there  was  a  large  population  of  the  best  class  of 
Germans,  many  of  whom  were  university  men  who  left 
their  own  country  after  the  Revolution  of  1848  and  came 
to  Cincinnati  to  settle.  Of  these,  Frederick  Hassaurek, 
General  Willich  and  Judge  Stallo,  who  came  to  Cincinnati 
when  Carl  Schurz  went  to  St.  Louis,  are  perhaps  the  most 
prominent.  The  German  influence  upon  the  community 
was  marked.  It  made  for  a  more  liberal  Sunday ;  it  brought 
the  study  of  German  into  the  public  schools;  and  it  devel- 
oped a  strong  taste  for  good  music.  Indeed,  the  musical 
advantages  of  Cincinnati  in  my  girlhood  were  better  than 
those  of  any  city  in  the  United  States,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  New  York  or  Boston.  Theodore  Thomas  was 
president  of  the  Conservatory  of  Music  and  he  organised 
a  symphony  orchestra  which  he  continued  to  direct  until 
he  went  to  Chicago  along  about  1890. 

Cincinnati  in  those  days,  with  her  educated,  wealthy 
and  public-spirited  society,  was  much  in  advance  of  any 
other  city  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  in  culture  and  refine- 
ment. There  was  great  interest  in  schools  of  all  sorts  and 
in  every  kind  of  intellectual  activity.  Away  back  in  1848 
the  Literary  Club  of  Cincinnati  was  formed  by  a  company 
of  men  among  whom  were  both  Mr.  Taft's  father  and  mine, 
as  well  as  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  Stanley  Matthews,  Man- 
ning F.  Force  and  Mr.  Spofford,  later  Librarian  of  Con- 
gress. This  club  continues  to  be  a  cherished  institution  and 
in  my  girlhood  it  was  the  centre  of  all  interest  in  literature 
and  intellectual  pursuits. 

My  father,  John  Williamson  Herron,  was  a  graduate  of 
Miami  University  at  Oxford,  Ohio,  and  was  in  college  with 
Benjamin  Harrison.  He  was  for  fifty  years  a  trustee  of 
that  institution  and  was  devoted  to  its  interests.  My  hus- 

2 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

band's  father,  Judge  Alphonso  Taft,  was  one  of  the  Yale 
class  of  1833,  was  for  many  years  a  member  of  the  Yale 
Corporation,  and  had  five  sons  who  graduated  at  that  uni- 
versity. My  mother's  brother,  Judge  Isaac  Clinton  Collins, 
and  one  of  my  two  brothers  also  graduated  at  Yale,  while 
my  other  brother  graduated  at  Harvard,  so  it  will  be  seen 
that  both  my  husband  and  I  grew  up  in  the  midst  of  strong 
collegiate  traditions. 

To  write  about  one's  childhood  is  not  easy.  Memories 
by  the  score  come  flocking  up,  but,  dear  as  they  are,  upon 
examination  they  turn  out  to  be  quite  commonplace  and 
hardly  worth  relating.  My  memories  are  not  sufficiently 
"early"  to  have  any  special  value.  The  first  thing  that  I 
dimly  remember  is  sitting  on  the  front  steps  of  my  home 
watching  some  sort  of  parade  in  which  there  were  many 
soldiers,  but  I  was  too  young  then  to  know  that  it  was  a 
peace  celebration  I  was  witnessing  at  the  close  of  the  Civil 
War. 

My  father  was  a  lawyer  who  came  to  the  bar  of  Ohio 
in  the  'forties.  He  was  United  States  Attorney  under  Presi- 
dent Harrison,  was  a  State  Senator,  and  twice  declined 
appointments  to  the  Bench  because  the  salary  attached  to 
these  positions  was  not  enough  to  support  his  large  family. 
I  was  the  fourth  in  a  family  of  eleven,  eight  girls  and  three 
boys.  One  boy  and  two  girls  died  before  I  can  remember. 

Our  house  was  one  of  a  block  of  grey  brick  houses  in 
Pike  Street,  at  the  east  end  of  Cincinnati,  which,  at  that 
time,  was  the  fashionable  residence  section  of  the  city. 
Pike  Street  runs  down  to  the  river  on  a  rather  steep  incline 
and,  as  it  was  paved  with  cobblestones,  my  early  memories 
are  somewhat  marred  by  an  impression  of  the  frequent 
clatter  and  clang  of  heavy  wagons  pulling  their  way  up 
the  hill  from  the  river  landing. 

While  our  house  was  not  particularly  distinguished,  being 
much  like  those  on  either  side  of  it,  across  the  street  from 

3 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

us  there  were  two  very  striking  and  imposing  residences 
which  lent  distinction  to  the  neighbourhood,  and  in  which, 
as  I  grew  up,  were  formed  the  pleasantest  associations  of 
my  life.  The  one  directly  opposite  was  a  large,  square, 
red  brick  house  which  had  an  air  of  great  dignity.  It  was 
the  home  of  Mr.  Larz  Anderson.  There  were  ten  boys  in 
the  Anderson  family  and,  though  they  were  all  much  older 
than  I  and  most  of  them  had  gone  away  before  I  grew  up, 
I  remember  that  it  was  a  very  lively  household  always.  In 
my  later  girlhood  we  were  specially  linked  to  this  family 
by  the  marriage  of  one  of  the  boys,  Charles,  to  my  sister 
Jennie. 

The  house  next  to  Mr.  Anderson's,  on  the  north,  I  knew 
as  the  Sinton  home.  A  low,  colonial  structure,  well  set 
in  a  garden  of  green  lawns  and  finely  kept  shrubbery,  it  is 
still  one  of  the  most  beautiful  residences  in  Cincinnati,  and, 
indeed,  in  the  whole  country.  Its  architecture  suggests  that 
of  the  White  House  and  it  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  de- 
signed by  the  same  architect,  an  Irishman  named  Hoban. 
The  Sinton  house  is  lower  than  the  White  House,  being 
only  one  story  high  with  a  basement,  but  it  has  the  same 
classic  outlines  and  it  bears,  moreover,  the  stamp  of  time, 
which  gives  it  a  character  all  its  own. 

It  was  built  about  1800  by  a  Mr.  Martin  Baum,  but  was 
purchased  by  the  first  Nicholas  Longworth  in  the  early  part 
of  the  century  and  was  the  home  of  the  Longworth  family 
for  a  generation.  Long  before  I  can  remember,  it  was 
bought  by  Mr.  David  Sinton,  one  of  the  most  successful 
business  men  in  Ohio,  and  to  me  it  was  always  the  Sinton 
home.  When  I  was  about  twelve  years  old,  Mr.  Sinton's 
daughter  Annie  married  my  husband's  brother,  Charles  P. 
Taft,  and  as  they  have  always  lived  in  this  old  house  it  has 
come  to  be  known,  since  Mr.  Sinton's  death  in  1901,  as  the 
Taft  house.  It  is  the  only  Taft  house  in  Cincinnati  now, 
the  house  where  my  husband  was  born  having  been  sold 

4 


MRS.  TAFT'S  CHILDHOOD  HOME  ON  PIKE  STREET,  IN  CINCINNATI 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

after  his  father's  death,  and  it  has  been  the  scene  of  many 
of  the  most  important  events  of  my  life.  It  was  there  that 
my  husband  received  the  announcement  of  his  nomination 
for  the  Presidency;  it  was  there,  in  front  of  the  house,  that 
he  made  his  speech  of  acceptance;  and  it  was  there  that 
Charles  Taft  gathered  a  large  party  of  friends  on  the  night 
of  November  6,  1908,  to  receive  with  us  the  election  re- 
turns. And  it  is  now  to  this  house,  where  my  husband's 
brother  Charles  and  his  wife  dispense  a  generous  hospitality, 
that  we  always  go  when  we  return  to  Cincinnati. 

My  girlhood  days  were  spent  quite  placidly  in  Miss 
Nourse's  school,  which  was  known  in  Cincinnati  as  "The 
Nursery,"  and  where  all  the  girls  of  the  Herron  family, 
as  well  as  Mr.  Taft's  only  sister,  Fanny,  received  their 
education.  Miss  Nourse  was  a  Maine  woman  with  a  thor- 
ough New  England  education  and  with  a  thoroughly  New 
England  idea  of  imparting  it.  She  insisted,  especially, 
upon  languages  and  literature.  Much  of  my  time,  outside 
of  that  taken  up  in  regular  school  work,  I  devoted  to  the 
study  of  music,  and  I  practised  my  scales  on  the  family 
piano  with  such  persistence  that  I  wonder  the  whole  neigh- 
bourhood did  not  rebel.  Music  was  the  absorbing  interest 
of  my  life  in  those  days,  the  inspiration  of  all  my  dreams 
and  ambitions. 

Our  house  was  none  too  large  for  the  family,  but  as  there 
was  a  wide  difference  in  our  ages  it  happened  that  my  oldest 
sister  was  married  while  my  youngest  sister  was  still  a  baby 
in  long  clothes.  Then,  the  boys  went  away  to  college  and 
were  gone  the  better  part  of  each  year,  so  it  was  not  often 
that  we  were  all  at  home  together.  Nevertheless,  we  had 
our  share  of  the  happy-go-lucky  and  somewhat  crowded 
existence  of  a  large  family  on  a  moderate  income. 

My  mother  was  Harriet  Collins,  and  when  she  was  seven- 
teen years  old  she  came  with  her  mother  to  Cincinnati,  from 
Lowville,  New  York,  to  live  with  her  brother,  Judge  Collins, 

5 


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who  was  my  father's  law  partner  and  continued  to  be  so  for 
more  than  forty  years.  Her  father,  Eli  Collins,  was  a 
Member  of  Congress  from  the  Lowville  district  of  New 
.York.  My  mother  was  in  many  ways  a  remarkable,  as 
well  as  a  most  attractive,  woman.  She  had  an  exceedingly 
keen  wit  and  a  mind  alert  to  the  humour  in  every  situation. 
With  so  many  children  to  nurse,  to  scold,  to  sew  for  and, 
sometimes,  to  cook  for — in  a  word,  to  bring  up  on  a  small 
income — she  would  seem  to  have  had  little  time  for  out- 
side interests;  but  she  was  very  popular  in  society  and  I 
remember  that  in  her  busiest  years  she  went  out  a  great 
deal.  She  had  a  stimulating  personality  and  I  do  know 
that  she  made  her  family  circle  a  very  amusing  and  interest- 
ing one  in  which  to  grow  up. 

The  only  incident  of  my  girlhood  which  was  in  any  way 
unusual  was  my  first  visit  to  the  White  House  as  a  guest 
of  President  and  Mrs.  Hayes.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hayes  and  my 
father  and  mother  had  been  lifelong  friends.  Mr.  Hayes 
was,  at  one  time,  a  partner  in  my  father's  law  firm.  They 
had  been  closely  associated  for  a  great  many  years  and  had  a 
very  warm  regard  for  each  other.  My  youngest  sister  was 
born  shortly  after  the  election  of  Mr.  Hayes,  was  named 
Lucy  Hayes  Herron,  after  Mrs.  Hayes,  and  was  taken  to  the 
White  House  to  be  christened.  My  mother  paid  several 
visits  to  the  White  House  and  after  my  sister  Jennie  was 
married  Mrs.  Hayes  invited  her  and  Mr.  Anderson  to  stay  a 
week  with  her  and,  to  my  intense  excitement,  she  added  that 
she  would  like  to  have  me  accompany  them.  I  was  seventeen 
years  old ;  I  had  never  been  to  Washington  and  to  me  it  was  a 
very  important  event.  I  was  not  "out,"  so  I  couldn't  spend 
my  time  in  the  White  House  as  I  would  have  liked,  in  going 
to  brilliant  parties  and  meeting  all  manner  of  charming 
people,  but,  fortunately  for  my  peace  of  mind,  the  Hayes 
lived  very  quietly,  so  it  was  not  so  trying  to  have  to  devote 

6 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

myself  to  seeing  the  sights  of  the  Capital  like  any  other 
tourist. 

I  didn't  meet  my  husband  until  I  was  eighteen  years  old. 
We  had  been  born  and  brought  up  in  the  same  town;  our 
fathers  were  warm  friends  and  had  practised  law  at  the  same 
bar  for  more  than  forty  years ;  during  that  time  our  mothers 
had  exchanged  visits,  and  my  sister  Maria  and  Fanny  Taft 
were  schoolmates  and  close  companions  at  Miss  Nourse's, 
but  the  Tafts  lived  at  Mt.  Auburn,  a  hill  suburb  of  Cincin- 
nati, and  after  Will  finished  Woodward  High  School  he 
went  for  four  years  to  Yale,  so  it  is  not  at  all  surprising  that 
we  did  not  meet. 

Judge  Alphonso  Taft  was  Secretary  of  War,  and  later 
Attorney-General,  in  Grant's  Cabinet  while  his  son  Will  was 
at  college,  but  before  the  latter  graduated,  the  family  had 
returned  to  Cincinnati,  so  he  came  straight  home  and  entered 
at  once  upon  a  law  course  in  the  Cincinnati  Law  School.  It 
was  at  that  time,  when  he  was  still  a  student  and  working 
as  a  law  reporter  on  the  Cincinnati  Commercial,  that  I  met 
him.  It  was  at  a  coasting  party  one  winter's  night,  I  re- 
member very  well,  when  I  went  with  a  party  of  young 
people,  including  the  Charles  Tafts,  to  coast  down 
a  fine  steep  hill  in  Mt.  Auburn.  Will  Taft  was  there,  and 
after  being  introduced  to  me  he  took  me  down  the  hill  on  his 
big  bobsled.  After  that  we  met  very  frequently. 

A  small  circle  of  us  went  in  for  amateur  theatricals 
with  much  enthusiasm  and  great  earnestness.  We  launched 
ourselves  in  our  histrionic  careers  in  "She  Stoops  to  Conquer" 
which  we  gave  at  the  house  of  one  of  the  company. 
Then  came  "A  Scrap  of  Paper"  in  Mrs.  Charles  Taft's 
drawing-room,  in  which  both  Will  and  I  took  part.  We 
had  become  very  ambitious  by  this  time  and  sent  all  the  way 
to  New  York  for  a  professional  stage-manager  to  help  us 
with  the  production.  But  it  turned  out  a  most  nervous  oc- 

7 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

casion.  We  were  all  overtrained,  I  suppose.  One  thing 
after  another  went  wrong  until  at  the  crisis  of  the  play, 
where  the  hero  is  supposed  to  find  in  the  barrel  of  a  gun  the 
scrap  of  paper  upon  which  the  whole  plot  hinges,  the  ama- 
teur hero  looked  pretty  foolish  when  he  discovered  there 
wasn't  any  gun.  Another  one  of  the  company,  in  a  fit  of 
absentmindedness,  no  doubt  due  to  overwrought  nerves,  had 
carried  it  off  the  stage,  and  just  when  the  situation  was  get- 
ting tragic  for  the  hero  the  culprit  came  creeping  back  with 
it  and  carefully  put  it  where  it  belonged,  for  all  the  world 
as  if  he  thought  he  were  making  himself  invisible  to  the  au- 
dience. 

But  our  ardour  was  not  dampened.  I  remember  Mr.  Taf  t 
especially  in  a  burlesque  of  "The  Sleeping  Beauty,"  which, 
in  its  legitimate  form,  had  been  produced  for  charity  at 
Pike's  Opera  House.  The  Unity  Club,  a  most  respectable 
organization  of  the  young  men  of  the  Unitarian  Church, 
decided  to  give  their  version  of  the  same  story,  and  it  was  a 
huge  success.  Mr.  Taf  t  played  the  title  role  and  his  brother 
Horace,  who  is  six  feet  four  in  his  stocking  feet,  shared  with 
the  Beauty  the  honours  of  the  evening  as  a  most  enchanting 
Puck. 

Then  we  had  parties  in  the  country,  too.  Many  of  our 
friends  had  country  places  that  spread  along  the  Madison 
Road  and  the  Grandin  Road  on  East  Walnut  Hills,  and 
two  of  my  closest  friends  lived  out  there  in  a  great  house, 
looking  down  over  the  majestic  but  tawny  Ohio  River,  above 
the  point  where  the  sweeping  curve  begins  that  carries  it  by 
the  amphitheatre  in  which  the  business  part  of  the  city  is 
built.  It  was  a  long  distance  to  East  Walnut  Hills  and  in 
my  girlhood  we  had  to  go  the  greater  part  of  the  way  in  a 
clumsy  old  omnibus  that  clumped  along  over  the  unpaved 
roads  at  the  rate  of  about  three  miles  an  hour.  But  such 
little  inconveniences  didn't  trouble  us,  and  many  were  the 
vaudeville  and  charade  parties  that  we  had,  there  being 

8 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

enough  "talent"  among  us  to  get  up  an  amusing  perform- 
ance at  a  moment's  notice. 

But  in  spite  of  all  this  gaiety,  Mr.  Taft  was  making  very 
satisfactory  progress  in  his  career.  As  a  law  reporter  he 
showed  his  growing  interest  in  the  public  welfare  by  meet- 
ing certain  elements  in  Cincinnati  politics  with  vigorous  de- 
nunciation. There  was  a  man  named  Tom  Campbell,  a 
clever  criminal  lawyer,  who  had  something  more  than  a  sus- 
picion against  him  of  bribery  and  corruption  of  both  wit- 
nesses and  juries,  and  he  had  succeeded  in  organising  a 
political  machine  that  was  running  the  town  according  to 
his  directions. 

Campbell  was  counsel  for  the  defence  in  what  was  known 
as  the  Hoffman  case  and  was  strongly  suspected  of  tamper- 
ing with  the  jury,  and  Mr.  Taft  in  reporting  the  case,  took 
special  pains  to  bring  out  all  the  fine  points  in  the  lawyer's 
character  and  methods,  telling  the  truth  as  he  saw  it. 

This  brought  him  into  association  with  Mr.  Miller  Out- 
calt,  the  Assistant  Prosecuting  Attorney,  who  represented 
the  State  in  the  Hoffman  case,  and  when  Mr.  Outcalt  suc- 
ceeded by  election  to  the  position  of  prosecuting  attorney 
he  offered  the  place  of  assistant  to  Mr.  Taft,  although  he 
had  been  at  the  bar  not  more  than  seven  months.  Mr.  Taft 
served  in  this  office  for  fourteen  months  and  the  experience 
he  had  in  the  rough-and-ready  practice  in  criminal  trials,  in 
preparing  cases  for  trial,  in  examining  witnesses,  in  making 
arguments  to  the  court  and  in  summing  up  to  the  jury,  was 
the  most  valuable  experience  he  could  possibly  have  in  fit- 
ting him  for  trial  work  at  the  bar. 

But  this  experience  was  shortened  by  a  circumstance  not 
of  his  seeking.  Major  Benjamin  Butterworth  was  the  Con- 
gressman from  one  of  the  Cincinnati  districts  in  President 
Arthur's  administration,  and  the  President  being  anxious 
to  relieve  the  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue,  called  on 
Major  Butterworth  to  suggest  the  name  of  another  man. 

9 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Major  Butterworth  had  been  for  a  long  time  a  warm  friend 
of  Mr.  Taft,  thought  he  had  a  good  family  name  and  was 
too  young  in  politics  to  have  many  political  enemies,  so  he 
suggested  him  and  wrote  to  urge  him  to  accept  the  appoint- 
ment which  the  President  immediately  offered  to  him.  He 
accepted  the  place  and  held  it  for  a  year,  but  it  proved  a 
serious  interruption  in  his  legal  career.  He  resigned  as 
soon  as  it  was  possible  and  began  practice  with  Major  H.  P. 
Lloyd  who  had  been  his  father's  partner  before  he  went  to 
Vienna. 

Mr.  Taft  went  abroad  in  the  summer  of  1883  to  visit 
Judge  and  Mrs.  Taft  in  Vienna,  and  it  was  about  this  time, 
when  we  had  all  spent  several  years  in  frivolities,  that  several 
of  us  became  very  serious-minded  and  decided  that  we  must 
have  something  l>y  way  of  occupation  more  satisfying  than 
dancing  and  amateur  theatricals.  I  secured  a  position  as 
school  teacher  and  taught  for  two  years,  first  at  Madame 
Fredin's  and  then  at  White  and  Sykes,  both  private  schools 
out  on  Walnut  Hills.  Then,  with  two  of  my  intimate 
friends,  I  decided  to  start  a  "salon."  We  called  it  a  "salon" 
because  we  planned  to  receive  a  company  who  were  to  engage 
in  what  we  considered  brilliant  discussion  of  topics  intel- 
lectual and  economic,  and  we  decided  that  our  gathering 
should  include  only  specially  invited  guests.  Among  these 
were  the  two  Taft  brothers,  Will  and  Horace,  and  other 
men  common  friends  of  us  all. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  two  marriages  resulted  from  this 
salon,  Mr.  Taft  has  suggested  ulterior  motives  on  the  part 
of  those  who  got  it  up,  but  there  was  no  truth  in  the  charge. 
We  were  simply  bent  on  "improving  our  minds"  in  the  most 
congenial  atmosphere  we  could  create,  and  if  our  discussions 
at  the  salon  usually  turned  upon  subjects  of  immediate  per- 
sonal interest,  to  the  neglect  of  the  abstruse  topics  we  had 
selected  for  debate,  it  was  because  those  subjects  were  just 
then  claiming  the  attention  of  the  whole  community. 

10 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Cincinnati,  thanks  to  the  activities  of  Tom  Campbell  and 
his  followers,  was  then  in  a  tangle  of  political  mismanage- 
ment of  a  particularly  vicious  character,  and  our  little  circle 
developed  a  civic  spirit  which  kept  us  alive  to  local  interests 
to  the  exclusion,  for  the  time  being,  of  everything  else. 
Mr.  Taft  was  intimately  connected  with  the  reform  move- 
ment, and  in  all  its  phases,  through  comedy  and  tragedy, 
disappointment  and  elation,  we  fought  it  out  at  our  salon 
meetings  with  such  high  feeling  and  enthusiasm  that  its 
history  became  the  history  of  our  lives  during  that 
period. 

Then  came  the  famous  Berner  case.  This  was  in  1884. 
Berner  had  committed  a  deliberate  murder  of  an  unusually 
appalling  nature  and  with  robbery  as  the  motive,  and  there 
was  great  excitement  about  it.  Campbell  became  his  coun- 
sel and,  in  a  trial  which  held  the  attention  of  the  community 
while  it  lasted,  he  succeeded  in  getting  the  man  off  for 
manslaughter  when  the  unanimous  opinion  was  that  he 
should  have  been  hanged.  Nobody  could  see  how  an  hon- 
est jury  could  have  rendered  any  other  verdict.  There  was 
intense  indignation  throughout  the  city  and  a  meeting  was 
called  to  denounce  Campbell  as  an  embracer  of  juries  and  a 
suborner  of  perjury. 

On  the  evening  when  the  meeting  to  denounce  Campbell 
was  called  we  were  having  a  session  of  the  salon  and  our 
whole  discussion  was  of  the  possible  developments  which 
might  grow  out  of  the  infamous  Berner  trial.  We  were 
greatly  excited  about  it.  I  remember  the  evening  distinctly 
because  of  the  terrible  things  that  happened.  We  were  dis- 
turbed by  a  great  commotion  in  the  street  and  we  sallied 
forth  in  a  body  to  see  what  it  was  all  about. 

The  mass  meeting  was  held  at  Music  Hall  and  was  pre- 
sided over  by  Dr.  Kemper,  a  very  effective  speaker.  The 
crowd  was  angry  and  quickly  passed  the  condemnatory  reso- 
lutions which  were  framed.  But  with  all  the  indignation 

11 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  resentment  everything  might  have  been  carried  out  quite 
calmly  had  not  the  match  been  applied  to  the  powder. 
Just  as  the  meeting  was  breaking  up  somebody  shouted: 
"Let's  go  down  to  the  jail  and  take  Berner  out !" 
It  was  an  appeal  to  the  mob  spirit  which  responds  so 
readily  in  an  angry  crowd;  they  went;  and  of  course  the 
worst  elements  immediately  came  to  the  top.  They  at- 
tacked the  jail,  which  was  in  the  rear  of  the  court  house,  but 
were  held  back  until  the  militia,  which  had  been  instantly 
summoned,  arrived.  Then  they  went  around  to  the  front 
and  set  fire  to  the  court  house.  With  the  streets  packed 
with  raging  humanity  it  was  not  possible  to  fight  the  fire 
and  the  building  was  completely  destroyed. 

The  militia  charged  the  mob  and  this  inspired  somebody 
with  the  idea  of  raiding  a  gun  store  and  seizing  arms  and 
ammunition  with  which  to  make  a  resistance.  The  idea 
caught  on  and  spread  rapidly.  One  place  attacked  was 
Powell's  gun  shop  near  Fourth  and  Main.  But  Powell, 
either  forewarned  or  foreseeing  some  such  development, 
had  quietly  made  preparations  to  meet  it.  He  lighted 
up  the  front  of  the  store  as  brightly  as  he  could,  then,  with 
two  or  three  other  men  who  were  expert  shots,  he  put  him- 
self behind  a  barricade  in  the  rear.  The  mob  came  on  and 
as  the  ringleaders  broke  into  the  shop  they  were  picked  off 
by  the  men  behind  the  barricade  and  killed  in  their  tracks. 
Four  or  five  of  them  went  down  in  a  heap  and  the  crowd 
behind  them,  not  expecting  such  a  reception,  instantly  was 
brought  to  its  senses.  This  was  in  April,  1884. 

Such  an  outbreak  was  a  disgrace  to  the  city  of  Cincinnati, 
but  it  had  the  effect  of  bringing  the  Campbell  controversy 
to  a  head.  A  bar  committee  of  ten  men,  of  which  both  my 
father  and  Mr.  Taft  were  members,  was  formed  to  see  what 
could  be  done  to  rid  the  community  of  the  evil  reputation  it 
had  acquired.  This  committee  made  a  thorough  investiga- 
tion of  Campbell's  character  and  record,  prepared  charges 

12 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

against  him  and,  with  my  father  as  chairman,  presented 
them,  in  June,  1884,  to  the  district  court  of  three  judges, 
and  asked  a  hearing  and  Campbell's  disbarment  if  the 
charges  were  proved. 

Campbell  had  been  indicted  on  a  criminal  charge  of  at- 
tempting to  bribe  a  man  called  on  the  Berner  jury  and  the 
prosecutor  in  this  case  was  our  intimate  friend  and  associate, 
Mr.  Rufus  Smith,  who  had  been  in  Europe  with  Mr.  Taft 
the  year  before.  The  jury  hung,  eight  to  four,  although 
the  evidence  was  strong  against  the  defendant.  This  fanned 
the  flames  of  popular  resentment  and  I  don't  suppose  our 
little  salon  was  the  only  place  in  Cincinnati  where  Campbell 
was  carefully  retried  and  convicted.  In  this  criminal  case 
Mr.  Foraker,  who  shortly  afterward  became  Governor  of 
Ohio,  was  counsel  for  Campbell. 

The  disbarment  hearing  was  set  for  the  following  Novem- 
ber and  some  six  months  was  thus  given  for  taking  the  dep- 
ositions of  non-resident  witnesses.  Mr.  Kittredge  and  Mr. 
Ramsey,  leaders  of  the  bar,  were  retained  as  senior  counsel 
for  the  committee,  and  Mr.  Taft  and  Mr.  John  Holmes, 
a  warm  friend  of  ours,  were  junior  counsel  and  were 
directed  to  prepare  the  evidence.  In  this  work  Mr.  Taft 
and  Mr.  Holmes  went  all  over  the  country  taking  deposi- 
tions and  we  kept  in  constant  touch  with  them.  All  the 
members  of  the  committee  expected  to  have  their  reputations 
assailed,  being  perfectly  certain  that  Campbell  would  not 
hesitate  at  any  measure  he  might  be  able  to  take  to  discredit 
them,  but  they  went  ahead  nevertheless. 

When  the  trial  came  on  Mr.  Ramsey,  of  the  senior  coun- 
sel, expected  to  open  the  case,  but  he  became  quite  seriously 
ill  and  was  confined  to  his  house  for  days.  Through  his 
unexpected  absence,  the  duty  of  making  the  opening  state- 
ment fell  to  Mr.  Taft.  He  was  taken  completely  by  sur- 
prise, but  he  rose  to  the  opportunity,  which  was  certainly  a 
splendid  one  for  a  man  so  young.  He  had  then  been  at  the 

13 


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bar  only  four  years,  but  having  assisted  throughout  in  the 
preparation  of  the  evidence  he  knew  the  case  from  beginning 
to  end  and  he  made  a  speech  which  lasted  four  hours  and 
a  half.  Mr.  Taft  thinks  this  was  an  opportunity  improved 
which  had  an  important  influence  on  his  career.  The 
special  part  it  played  in  his  subsequent  promotion  I  shall 
speak  of. 

The  result  in  the  Campbell  case  was  at  first  disappoint- 
ing because  the  Court  which  heard  the  disbarment  charges 
found  Campbell  guilty  only  on  minor  charges  and,  by  a  vote 
of  two  to  one  acquitted  him  on  those  which  would  have 
required  his  disbarment.  But  the  public  disapproval  of  the 
Court's  decision  and  the  moral  effect  of  the  proceedings 
drove  Campbell  from  the  city  and  the  State  and  accom- 
plished the  purpose  of  the  bar  association. 

The  Campbell  trial  was  finished  in  December,  1884,  and 
in  January,  1885,  Mr.  Rufus  Smith,  an  old  and  intimate 
friend,  entered  the  office  of  County  Solicitor  and  tendered 
to  Mr.  Taft  the  place  of  Assistant  County  Solicitor.  The 
advantage  of  this  office  was  that  it  paid  $2500  a  year  and 
that,  while  he  acted  as  counsel  for  the  county,  he  still  was 
able  to  continue  the  general  practice  of  law  with  his  part- 
ner, Major  Lloyd. 

Mr.  Taft  and  I  were  engaged  in  May,  1885,  anc*  were 
married  in  June  of  the  following  year. 

In  the  summer  of  1885  my  mother,  moved  I  think  by 
some  sentimental  attachment  to  the  scenes  of  her  childhood, 
decided  that  she  would  take  us  all  up  into  the  Adirondack^, 
to  a  little  camp  near  Lowville.  My  two  older  sisters  were 
married  so  there  were  only  six  of  us  left  in  the  family,  but 
we  were  still  something  of  a  handful  to  move  in  a  body. 
However,  my  mother  was  equal  to  it.  We  packed  almost  a 
van  load  of  trunks  and  set  out,  and  one  evening  we  arrived, 
over  the  worst  corduroy  road  that  was  ever  laid  down,  at  a 
little  cottage  beside  a  beautiful  lake  in  a  setting  of  pine-clad 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

hills.  The  scenery  indeed  was  most  satisfactory,  but  the 
cottage  was  so  small  that  the  family  more  than  strained  its 
capacity.  Then  we  took  our  meals  at  a  sort  of  boarding 
house  called  Fenton's,  where  the  only  thing  on  the  bill  of 
fare  was  fresh  beef.  I  like  what  is  known  as  "roughing  it" 
as  well  as  anybody,  but  even  the  superlative  appetite  pro- 
duced by  outdoor  living  demands  some  variety ;  and  variety 
we  did  not  get. 

Mr.  Taft  had  elected  to  remain  in  Cincinnati  all  summer 
and  save  money.  It  was  a  Spartan  resolution  and  we  all 
applauded  it,  but  he  probably  found  Lowville  a  long  way 
from  Pike  Street;  and  I  certainly  thought  Mother  was  sac- 
rificing a  good  deal  for  the  sake  of  renewing  the  memories  of 
her  youth.  However,  the  days  went  on,  while  the  fresh 
beef  grew  less  and  less  tempting. 

I  had  written  Mr.  Taft  something  about  the  Fenton  fare 
and  he,  wanting  very  much  to  join  us,  but  having  no 
excuse  for  breaking  his  admirable  resolution  to  remain  in 
Cincinnati,  hit  upon  the  only  plan  for  escaping  comment 
on  his  lack  of  fortitude.  He  went  down  to  Peeble's,  a 
fancy  grocer,  and  selecting  a  box  as  big  as  a  Saratoga  trunk, 
ordered  it  filled  with  every  kind  of  delicacy  he  could  think 
of  or  have  pointed  out  to  him  and  brought  it  with  him  to 
Lowville. 

We  went  rowing  on  the  lake  about  sundown  the  evening 
he  arrived,  and  right  in  the  middle  of  a  fine  long  stroke 
he  suddenly  dropped  his  oars,  reached  in  his  pocket  and 
drew  out  a  letter.  He  laughed  a  little  when  he  handed  it 
to  me,  then  picking  up  his  oars  he  rowed  on  without  a  word. 
The  letter  was  from  his  father. 

Judge  Taft  was  at  this  time  Minister  to  St.  Petersburg, 
having  been  transferred  from  Vienna.  Will  had  written 
him  about  his  engagement  and  about  his  plan  to  remain  in 
town  all  summer  and  devote  himself  strictly  to  business  and 
the  accumulation  of  funds;  and  this  was  the  answer. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

There  were  a  lot  of  nice  complimentary  things  about  me, 
with  the  warmest  congratulations  and  good  wishes ;  then  the 
letter  closed  by  saying:  "I  am  very  much  pleased  with 
your  decision  to  remain  in  Cincinnati  this  summer.  I  my- 
self have  found  it  not  at  all  bad  if  you  take  care  of  yourself, 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  during  the  quiet  months  one  can 
make  and  save  considerable  money  by  staying  at  home.  I 
congratulate  you  on  your  strength  of  character."  We 
really  had  a  delightful  summer  at  Fenton's  after  that. 

My  father  had  given  me  a  very  nice  lot  at  the  end  of 
McMillan  Street  on  the  site  of  an  old  quarry,  which  com- 
manded a  fine  view  of  the  Ohio  River  and  the  surrounding 
country,  and  Mr.  Taf  t  and  I  determined  to  build  a  house  on 
it  which  should  be  ready  for  us  when  we  got  back  from  our 
wedding  trip.  So  the  winter  before  our  marriage  was  filled 
with  architects'  plans,  contractors'  estimates  and  all  the 
other  fascinating  details  of  building,  and  we  thought  that 
we  had  finally  settled  upon  a  design  that  met  with  every 
requirement  of  good  taste  and  modern  comfort. 

For  our  wedding  trip,  we  went  abroad,  and  I  had  my  first 
taste  of  the  foreign  travel  of  which  I  had  always  dreamed. 
We  crossed  on  the  City  of  Chester  which  was  the  oldest,  and 
therefore  the  cheapest  ship  of  the  Inman  line.  We  chose 
her  for  the  simple  reason  that  her  rates  accorded  with  our 
means,  but  we  found,  much  to  our  astonishment,  that  we 
were  the  only  people  on  board  who  had  deliberately  selected 
her.  Everybody  else  had  been  forced  to  take  her  bcause 
of  some  emergency  or  some  mishap.  One  man  had  to  miss 
the  Germanic  in  order  to  give  his  dentist  time  to  relieve  a 
very  troublesome  tooth.  Another  man  was  called  to  court 
just  as  he  was  about  to  board  the  Britannic.  Those  were 
the  proud  ships  of  the  Atlantic  in  those  days  and  it  was  not 
at  all  difficult  to  understand  why  anybody  should  prefer 
them  to  the  City  of  Chester,  but  it  amused  us  greatly  to  hear 
the  shamefaced  excuses  of  our  fellow  passengers.  My  hus- 

16 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

band  and  I  were  not  ashamed,  nor  were  we  so  particular 
about  our  comforts  that  we  did  not  thoroughly  enjoy  our- 
selves. Besides,  we  had  the  gratifying  consciousness  of  the 
money  which  the  low  rates  had  left  in  our  pockets  to  be  spent 
much  more  profitably  abroad. 

The  trip  was  full  of  interest  to  us  both.  We  spent  the 
greater  part  of  the  summer  in  England  and  saw  the  sights  of 
London  and  the  cathedral  towns  in  great  detail.  Our  only 
trip  on  the  Continent  was  through  Holland  to  Paris.  I  re- 
member that  in  Amsterdam  I  bought  some  old  and  rather 
large  Delft  plates.  They  wouldn't  go  into  any  trunk  we 
had,  so  I  had  them  carefully  packed  in  a  wicker  hamper  and 
this  article  became  thereafter  a  part  of  our  hand  luggage,  and 
was  the  occasion  for  a  decided  disagreement  between  my  hus- 
band and  me  as  to  what  the  true  object  of  travel  was.  He 
used  to  say  that  he  "toted  that  blamed  thing  all  around 
Europe  and  after  all  it  arrived  in  Cincinnati  with  its  con- 
tents in  small  pieces."  Which  was  true.  He  had  "toted" 
it  all  around  Europe,  but  when  we  arrived  in  New  York  I 
entrusted  it  to  an  express  company  with  the  result  that  when 
we  opened  it  we  found  its  contents  in  such  a  condition  that 
only  an  accomplished  porcelain  mender  could  put  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  pieces  together  to  make  what  my  husband 
always  afterward  referred  to  as  "the  memento  of  our  first 
unpleasantness." 

Our  trip  from  Cincinnati  to  Cincinnati  took  just  one  hun- 
dred days  and  cost  us  just  one  thousand  dollars,  or  five  dol- 
lars a  day  each.  I  venture  to  say  that  could  not  be  done 
nowadays,  even  by  as  prudent  a  pair  as  we  were. 

During  a  subsequent  trip  abroad,  two  years  later,  I  was 
able  to  indulge  my  desire  to  hear  music.  We  went  to 
Beyreuth,  to  the  Wagner  festival,  and  heard  Parsifal  and 
The  Meister singers  gloriously  rendered ;  after  which  we  went 
to  Munich  and  attended  operas  and  concerts  until  Mr.  Taft 
rebelled.  He  said  that  he  enjoyed  a  certain  amount  of 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

music  just  as  much  as  anybody,  but  that  he  did  want  to  get 
something  more  out  of  European  travel  than  a  nightly  opera 
and  a  daily  symphony. 

So — we  went  to  Italy  and  saw  Rome  and  Florence  in  true 
Baedecker  style.  When  we  arrived  in  Rome  we  opened  our 
Baedecker  and  read  that  there  was  almost  no  foundation  for 
Rome's  awful  reputation  as  an  unhealthy  place.  "Rome 
is  a  very  healthy  place,"  said  Baedecker,  "at  all  times  of 
the  year  except  the  first  two  weeks  in  August,  when  a  visit 
there  is  attended  with  risk."  We  had  arrived  for  the  first 
two  weeks  in  August ! 

When  we  came  home  from  our  wedding  trip  we  found 
that  our  house  was  not  yet  completed,  so  we  went  to  stay 
with  Judge  and  Mrs.  Taft  for  a  month  at  the  old  house  in 
Mt.  Auburn.  It  was  a  nice  old  place,  with  about  three 
acres  of  ground,  but  the  air  around  it  was  just  about  as  sooty 
as  if  it  had  been  located  down  under  the  factory  chimneys. 
Mt.  Auburn  is  on  a  sort  of  promontory  which  juts  out  into 
the  city;  it  is  on  a  level  with  the  tops  of  the  smoke  stacks 
and  it  catches  all  the  soot  that  the  air  can  carry  that  far. 

Judge  and  Mrs.  Taft  had  come  home  from  their  Euro- 
pean mission  in  time  for  our  wedding.  Judge  Taft  had 
been  ill  in  St.  Petersburg  and  had  given  his  family  a  great 
deal  of  anxiety,  but  he  was  now  settled  down  to  the  busi- 
ness of  quiet  recuperation  and  the  enjoyment  of  well-earned 
rest. 

My  husband's  father  was  "gentle"  beyond  anything  I 
ever  knew.  He  was  a  man  of  tremendous  firmness  of  pur- 
pose and  just  as  set  in  his  views  as  any  one  well  could  be, 
but  he  was  one  of  the  most  lovable  men  that  ever  lived  be- 
cause he  had  a  wide  tolerance  and  a  strangely  "understand- 
ing sympathy"  for  everybody.  He  had  a  great  many 
friends,  and  to  know  him  was  to  know  why  this  was  so. 

Mr.  Taft's  mother,  though  more  formal,  was  also  very 
kindly  and  made  my  visit  to  her  home  as  a  bride  full  of 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

pleasure.  The  two,  the  father  and  mother,  had  created  a 
family  atmosphere  in  which  the  children  breathed  in  the 
highest  ideals,  and  were  stimulated  to  sustained  and  strenu- 
ous intellectual  and  moral  effort  in  order  to  conform  to  the 
family  standard.  There  was  marked  serenity  in  the  circle 
of  which  Judge  and  Mrs.  Taft  were  the  heads.  They  had 
an  abiding  confidence  in  the  future  of  their  children  which 
strongly  influenced  the  latter  to  justify  it.  They  both  had 
strong  minds,  intellectual  tastes,  wide  culture  and  catholic 
sympathies. 

Not  long  after  we  arrived  my  husband  came  to  me  one 
day  with  an  air  of  great  seriousness,  not  to  say  of  concilia- 
tion, and  said: 

"Nellie,  Father  has  got  himself  into  rather  a  difficulty 
and  I  hope  I  can  rely  on  you  to  help  him  out — not  make  it 
too  hard  for  him,  you  know, — make  him  feel  as  comfortable 
about  it  as  you  can.  The  truth  is  he  used  to  have  a  mes- 
senger at  the  War  Department  in  Washington  whom  he  was 
very  fond  of.  He  was  a  bright  man — colored,  of  course — 
and  he  was  very  devoted  to  Father.  Now  this  man  called 
on  Father  down  town  to-day.  He's  here  on  a  private  car 
and  Father  says  he's  made  a  great  success  as  a  porter. 
Father  got  to  talking  to  him,  and  there  were  lots  of  things 
they  wanted  to  talk  about,  and  besides  the  man  said  he 
would  like  very  much  to  see  Mother, — and  Father, 
who  was  just  about  ready  to  come  home  to  lunch  said — 
right  on  the  spur  of  the  moment — you  understand  he 
didn't  think  anything  about  it — he  said  to  this  man,  'Come 
on  home  and  have  lunch  with  us.5  He's  downstairs  now. 
Father  came  to  me  and  said  he  had  just  realised  that  it  was 
something  of  a  difficulty  and  that  he  was  sorry.  He  said 
that  he  could  take  care  of  Mother  if  I  could  take  care  of 
you.  So  I  hope  you  won't  mind." 

As  soon  as  I  could  control  my  merriment  caused  by  this 
halting  and  very  careful  explanation,  I  went  down  to  lunch- 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

eon.  I  didn't  mind  and  Will's  mother  didn't  mind,  but  the 
expression  on  the  face  of  Jackson,  the  negro  butler,  was  al- 
most too  much  for  my  gravity.  I  will  say  that  the  porter 
had  excellent  manners  and  the  luncheon  passed  off  without 
excitement. 

We  made  a  short  visit  at  my  mother's  on  Pike  Street  be- 
fore we  moved  into  our  new  house  on  McMillan  Street;  but 
we  began  the  year  of  1 887  under  our  own  roof  which,  though 
it  was  mortgaged,  was  to  us,  for  the  time  being,  most  satis- 
factory. 


20 


CHAPTER  II 

CINCINNATI    AND    WASHINGTON 

ONE  day  after  we  had  been  married  less  than  a  year  my  hus- 
band came  home  looking  so  studiously  unconcerned  that  I 
knew  at  once  he  had  something  to  tell  me. 

"Nellie,  what  would  you  think,"  he  began  casually,  "if 
I  should  be  appointed  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court*?" 

"Oh,  don't  try  to  be  funny,"  I  exclaimed.  "That's  per- 
fectly impossible." 

But  it  was  not  impossible,  as  he  soon  convinced  me. 
My  father  had  just  refused  the  same  appointment  and 
it  was  difficult  to  believe  that  it  could  now  be  offered 
to  my  husband  who  was  only  twenty-nine  years  old.  It 
was  a  position  made  vacant  by  the  retirement  from  the 
Bench  of  Judge  Judson  Harmon  who  was  my  husband's 
senior  by  more  than  a  decade. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  and  prosperous  law  firms  in 
Cincinnati  was  that  of  Hoadley,  Johnston  and  Colston,  and 
both  Mr.  Hoadley  and  Mr.  Johnston  had  been  invited  to 
go  to  New  York  and  become  partners  of  Mr.  Edward 
Lauterbach  who  was  then  doing  an  enormous  business. 

They  went,  and  the  old  firm  in  Cincinnati  being  broken 
up,  Mr.  Colston  asked  Judge  Harmon,  who  was  then  on  the 
Superior  Court,  to  take  Mr.  Hoadley's  place.  Mr.  Har- 
mon decided  to  do  so,  but  he  was  anxious  to  resign  his  judge- 
ship  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  a  long  enough  vacancy  to  at- 
tract a  good  man.  It  was  an  elective  office  and  the  law  pro- 
vided that  a  vacancy  occurring  within  thirty  days  before 
election  could  not  be  filled  by  an  election  until  the  follow- 
ing year.  Judge  Harmon  resigned  so  as  to  make  the  ap- 
pointment for  a  period  of  fourteen  months.  After  my  father 
declined  it,  the  choice  lay  between  Mr.  Taft  and  Mr.  Bel- 
lamy Storer.  Mr.  Taft  always  thought  that  but  for  his 

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opportunity  in  the  Campbell  case  Judge  Harmon  would  not 
have  recommended  him  and  Governor  Foraker  would  not 
have  appointed  him.  That  is  why  he  says  he  traces  all  his 
success  back  to  that  occasion.  Mr.  Foraker  was  opposing 
counsel  in  the  Campbell  case,  but  he  had  a  lawyer's  appre- 
ciation for  a  lawyer's  effort. 

After  the  first  pleased  surprise  at  the  honour  which  came 
to  us  so  unexpectedly  I  began  to  think;  and  my  thinking 
led  me  to  decide  that  my  husband's  appointment  on  the 
Bench  was  not  a  matter  for  such  warm  congratulation  after 
all.  I  saw  him  in  close  association  with  men  not  one  of 
whom  was  less  than  fifteen  years  older  than  he,  and  most  of 
whom  were  much  more  than  that.  He  seemed  to  me 
suddenly  to  take  on  a  maturity  and  sedateness  quite  out  of 
keeping  with  his  actual  years  and  I  dreaded  to  see  him  set- 
tled for  good  in  the  judiciary  and  missing  all  the  youthful 
enthusiasms  and  exhilarating  difficulties  which  a  more  gen- 
eral contact  with  the  world  would  have  given  him.  In  other 
words,  I  began  even  then  to  fear  the  narrowing  effects  of 
the  Bench  and  to  prefer  for  him  a  diverse  experience  which 
would  give  him  an  all-round  professional  development. 

He  did  not  share  this  feeling  in  any  way.  His  appoint- 
ment on  the  Superior  Court  was  to  him  the  welcome  begin- 
ning of  just  the  career  he  wanted.  After  serving  the  interim 
of  fourteen  months  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  office  and 
was  elected  for  a  term  of  five  years.  This  was  the  only 
elective  office  Mr.  Taf t  ever  held  until  he  became  President. 

My  own  time  and  interest  during  that  winter  was  largely 
spent  on  my  house.  We  had  been  very  particular  about  the 
plans  for  it  and  had  fully  intended  that  it  should  combine 
outward  impressiveness  with  inward  roominess  and  comfort. 
It  was  a  frame  structure,  shingled  all  over,  and  with  certain 
bay  window  effects  which  pleased  me  exceedingly.  In  fact, 
with  our  assistance,  the  architect  had  made  a  special  effort 
to  produce  something  original  and,  while  I  don't  claim  that 

22 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

the  result  was  a  conspicuous  architectural  success,  to  my 
mind  it  was  anything  but  a  failure.  And  our  view  of  the 
Ohio  River  and  the  surrounding  country  was  really  superb. 

But  I  was  not  destined  to  enjoy  my  satisfaction  with  my 
surroundings  very  long.  The  section  had  been  at  one  time 
a  stone  quarry,  and  the  man  who  had  levelled  off  the  land 
and  filled  in  the  gulches  made  by  the  quarry  operations,  took 
as  a  part  of  his  compensation  two  building  lots  which  hap- 
pened to  be  just  across  the  street  from  ours.  He  forthwith 
proceeded  to  put  up  a  sort  of  double  house  which  looked 
more  like  a  gigantic  dry-goods  box  than  anything  else,  and  I 
felt  that  it  quite  robbed  the  neighbourhood  of  the  "tone" 
which  I  had  confidently  hoped  our  house  would  give  it. 
The  double  house  had  just  one  quality  and  that  was  size. 

I  think  the  owner,  whose  name  was  Jerry  something,  lived 
in  one  side  of  it,  and  he  had  a  tenant  in  the  other  who  hung 
clothes  out  of  the  front  windows.  But  tastes  in  architec- 
ture differ,  as  we  soon  found  out. 

We  were  paying  taxes  on  our  house  at  an  assessed  value 
of  $4000  and  the  undervaluation  had  been  troubling  my 
husband's  conscience  for  a  long  time,  in  spite  of  my  assuring 
him  that  tax  collectors  ought  to  know  their  own  business. 
Some  men  from  the  board  of  equalization  were  to  call  one 
day  to  make  a  new  appraisement  and  I  had  very  much 
hoped  that  my  husband  would  not  be  at  home.  But  he  was ; 
he  was  there  to  welcome  them  and  give  them  every  possible 
assistance.  Without  waiting  for  an  examination  of  the 
premises,  he  addressed  one  of  them,  an  Irishman  named 
Ryan. 

"See  here,  Mr.  Ryan,"  he  said,  '1  understand  that  Jerry, 
my  neighbour  across  the  street,  has  his  property  assessed  at 
$5000.  Now  I  don't  think  that's  fair.  I'm  assessed  at 
only  $4000  and  I'm  sure  my  house  cost  a  good  deal  more 
than  his.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  cost  over  $6000.  Now  I'm 
a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court;  I  get  my  income  out  of  taxes 

23 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  I  certainly  have  no  disposition  to  pay  any  less  than  my 
share." 

"Well,  Judge,  your  Honour,"  said  Mr.  Ryan,  "that  is  a 
sentiment  very  befitting  your  Honour.  Now  I'll  just  be  after 
goin'  over  and  lookin'  at  those  houses  of  Jerry's,  and  then 
I'll  come  back  and  look  at  yours." 

I  watched  them  as  they  went  over  to  the  other  houses; 
then  I  saw  them  go  up  the  street  a  way  and  down  the  street 
a  way,  looking  us  carefully  over  from  every  possible  view- 
point. When  they  came  in  they  wore  a  very  judicial  aspect 
and  I  expected  to  see  taxes  go  up  with  one  wild  leap. 

"Well,  Judge,  your  Honour,"  began  Mr.  Ryan,  "I  think 
you're  givin'  yourself  unnecessary  concern.  We  assess 
houses  for  what  they're  worth  and  not  for  what  they  cost. 
While  your  house  no  doubt  suits  your  taste,  it  has  a  peculiar 
architectural  style  that  wouldn't  please  very  many  people, 
and  certainly  it  ain't  to  compare  with  those  houses  of  Jerry's. 
There's  a  modern  polish  about  those  houses  that  will  rent, 
Judge,  your  Honour." 

My  son  Robert  was  born  in  this  house  on  McMillan 
Street  in  September,  1889.  In  the  following  February  an 
interruption  occurred  in  our  peaceful  existence  which  was 
welcome  at  least  to  me.  President  Harrison  offered  the 
appointment  of  Solicitor  General  of  the  United  States  to 
Mr.  Taft  and  he,  with  a  few  regretful  glances  at  his  beloved 
Bench,  accepted  it.  I  think  that  once  again  it  was  Major 
Butterworth  who  suggested  my  husband's  name  to  the  ap- 
pointing power.  I  was  very  glad  because  it  gave  Mr.  Taft 
an  opportunity  for  exactly  the  kind  of  work  I  wished  him  to 
do;  work  in  which  his  own  initiative  and  originality  would 
be  exercised  and  developed.  I  looked  forward  with  inter- 
est, moreover,  to  a  few  years  in  Washington. 

Mr.  Taft  made  his  first  official  arrival  in  Washington 
alone.  My  baby,  Robert,  was  only  six  months  old  and  I 
concluded  to  remain  in  Cincinnati  until  my  husband  could 

24 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

make  arrangements  for  our  comfortable  reception.  His  de- 
scription of  his  first  day  in  Washington  is,  in  the  light  of 
later  events,  rather  amusing. 

He  arrived  at  six  o'clock  on  a  cold,  gloomy  February 
morning  at  the  old  dirty  Pennsylvania  station.  He  wan- 
dered out  on  the  street  with  a  heavy  bag  in  his  hand  look- 
ing for  a  porter,  but  there  were  no  porters.  Then  he 
stood  for  a  few  moments  looking  up  at  the  Capitol  and  feel- 
ing dismally  unimportant  in  the  midst  of  what  seemed  to 
him  to  be  very  formidable  surroundings.  He  wondered  to 
himself  why  on  earth  he  had  come.  He  was  sure  he  had 
made  a  fatal  mistake  in  exchanging  a  good  position  and  a 
pleasant  circle  at  home,  where  everybody  knew  him,  for 
a  place  in  a  strange  and  forbidding  city  where  he  knew  prac- 
tically nobody  and  where,  he  felt  sure,  nobody  wanted  to 
know  him.  He  lugged  his  bag  up  to  the  old  Ebbitt  House 
and,  after  eating  a  lonesome  breakfast,  he  went  to  the  De- 
partment of  Justice  to  be  sworn  in.  After  that  ceremony 
was  over  and  he  had  shaken  hands  with  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral, he  went  up  to  inspect  the  Solicitor  General's  Office,  and 
there  he  met  the  most  dismal  sight  of  the  whole  dismal  day. 
His  "quarters"  consisted  of  a  single  room,  three  flights  up, 
and  bearing  not  the  slightest  resemblance  to  his  mental  pic- 
ture of  what  the  Solicitor  General's  offices  would  be  like. 
The  Solicitor  General's  stenographer,  it  seemed,  was  a  tele- 
grapher in  the  chief  clerk's  office  and  had  to  be  sent  for  when 
his  services  were  required.  Altogether  it  must  have  been  a 
very  disheartening  outlook. 

As  Mr.  Taf t  sat  looking  over  briefs  and  other  papers,  and 
trying  to  get  some  definite  idea  about  his  new  work,  a  mes- 
senger brought  in  a  card. 

"Mr.  Evarts,  New  York,"  it  read. 

Evarts  was  a  well-known  name,  of  course,  but  it  was  hard 
for  Mr.  Taft  to  believe  that  the  William  M.  Evarts,  leader 
of  the  American  Bar  and  then  Senator  from  New  York, 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

could  be  calling  on  the  Solicitor  General  of  less  than  a  day. 
He  knew  that  Wm.  M.  Evarts  had  known  his  father. 

Mr.  Evarts  entered. 

"Mr.  Taft,"  he  said,  as  he  gave  my  husband's  hand  a 
cordial  grasp,  "I  knew  your  father.  I  was  in  the  class  of 
'37  at  Yale  and  he  had  graduated  before  I  entered;  but  he 
was  there  as  a  tutor  in  my  time  and  I  valued  his  friendship 
very  highly." 

Then  the  visitor  came  straight  to  the  point. 

"Mrs.  Evarts  and  I  are  giving  a  dinner  to-night  for  my 
former  partner  and  his  wife,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Joseph  Choate. 
Mr.  Choate  is  in  Washington  for  a  short  time  to  argue  a 
case  before  the  Supreme  Court.  Now,  unfortunately,  one 
of  our  guests  has  sent  word  that  he  can't  come  and  I  thought, 
perhaps,  considering  my  long-standing  friendship  with  your 
father,  you  might  consent  to  waive  ceremony  and  fill  the 
place  at  our  table  at  this  short  notice." 

My  husband  accepted  the  invitation  with  almost  undue 
alacrity,  and  when  his  guest  left  started  in  on  his  new  duties 
feeling  that,  after  all,  Washington  might  afford  just  as 
friendly  an  atmosphere  as  Cincinnati,  once  he  became  accus- 
tomed to  it. 

There  is  just  one  incident  in  connection  with  the  dinner 
party  which  Mr.  Taft  adds  to  his  account  of  that  day.  As 
he  sat  down  to  dinner  the  ladies  on  either  side  of  him  leaned 
hastily  forward  to  see  what  was  written  on  his  place-card. 
"The  Solicitor  General" — that  was  all.  Of  course  neither 
of  them  knew  who  the  new  Solicitor  General  was  and  it 
didn't  occur  to  him  to  enlighten  them  until  it  was  too  late 
to  do  it  gracefully.  So  he  allowed  them  to  go  on  addressing 
him  as  "Mr.  Solicitor  General"  while  he,  having  them  at  an 
advantage,  addressed  them  by  the  names  which  he  had  sur- 
reptitiously read  on  their  place-cards.  They  were  Mrs. 
Henry  Cabot  Lodge  and  Mrs.  John  Hay. 

When  my  husband  had  been  in  Washington  two  weeks 

26 


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A 


I 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

I  joined  him  and  we  took  a  small  house  on  Dupont  Circle 
where  for  two  years  we  lived  a  life,  sometimes  amusing, 
sometimes  quite  exciting,  but,  on  the  whole,  of  quiet  routine. 

Washington  society  was  much  simpler  then  than  it  is 
now.  Since  that  time  a  great  many  people  of  very  large 
means  have  gone  to  Washington  to  live  because  of  its  un- 
usual attractions  and  its  innumerable  advantages  as  a  resi- 
dential city.  They  have  changed  Washington,  by  their 
generous  hospitality,  into  one  of  the  most  brilliant  social 
centres  in  the  world,  where  large  dinner  parties,  balls,  recep- 
tions, musicals  and  other  entertainments  are  of  daily  and 
nightly  occurrence  throughout  the  season.  The  very  char- 
acter of  the  streets  has  changed.  The  small,  red  brick 
houses,  closely  grouped  together  and  neighbouring,  even  in 
fashionable  quarters,  on  negro  shacks  and  cheap  tenements, 
are  being  everywhere  replaced  by  marble  and  granite  resi- 
dences of  great  beauty  and  luxury. 

In  1890  Society  in  Washington  still  consisted,  chiefly,  of 
the  "best  families"  of  the  old  city,  the  Diplomatic  Corps 
and  the  highest  among  the  government  officials,  A  dinner 
party  of  twelve  was  still  considered  large,  and  only  a  few 
people  had  weekly  evenings  At  Home.  There  were  occa- 
sional big  receptions,  but  for  nobody  was  society  the  mad 
rush  that  it  is  to-day.  We  ourselves  lived  very  simply  even 
for  those  simple  days. 

My  daughter  Helen  was  born  in  1891,  so  for  the  last  year 
in  Washington  I  had  two  small  babies  to  care  for.  In  order 
that  he  might  get  a  little  much  needed  exercise  Mr.  Taft 
bought  a  horse  and,  fortunately,  for  us,  he  secured  a  most 
adaptable  creature.  He  was  supposed  to  be  a  riding  horse, 
but  he  didn't  mind  making  himself  generally  usefuL  The 
Attorney  General  lent  us  a  carriage  which  he  was  not  then 
using — a  surrey,  I  think  it  was  called — and  we  hitched  him 
to  that;  and  the  whole  Taft  family  drove  out  of  a  Sunday 
afternoon  to  the  Old  Soldiers'  Home,  which  was  the  fashion- 

27 


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able  drive  in  those  days,  or  up  the  aqueduct  road  to  Cabin 
John's  bridge.  My  sister  Maria  who  visited  us  used  always 
to  speak  of  our  steed  as  "G'up,"  a  name  suggested  by  Bobby's 
interpretation  of  his  father's  invocations  to  the  good-natured 
and  leisurely  beast.  Poor  old  "G'up" !  I  suppose  with  his 
"horse  sense"  he  finally  realised  that  he  was  leading  such  a 
double  life  as  no  respectable  horse  should  lead;  he  gave  up 
and  died  before  we  left  Washington. 

The  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  the  Attorney 
General,  the  men  with  whom  Mr.  Taft  came  most  in  con- 
tact, were,  with  their  wives,  very  kind  and  attentive  to  us, 
including  us  in  many  of  their  delightful  parties.  Chief  Jus- 
tice Fuller  was  then  the  head  of  the  court  and  I  have  the 
pleasantest  memories  of  his  and  Mrs.  Fuller's  hospitality. 
Justice  Grey  had  married  a  Miss  Matthews,  a  daughter  of 
Mr.  Justice  Matthews.  I  had  known  Mrs.  Grey  in  Cincin- 
nati before  her  marriage. 

f  During  the  course  of  my  first  weeks  in  Washington  Mr. 
Taft  had  taken  special  pains  to  impress  on  me  many  times 
the  necessity  for  my  calling  on  Mrs.  Grey  without  any  delay. 
Much  importance  attached  to  the  formality  of  first  calls  and 
I  was  the  newest  of  newcomers  who  had  to  call  on  the  wives 
of  all  my  husband's  official  superiors  before  they  noticed 
me.  Still,  it  was  a  full  month  before  I  had  time  to  go  to 
Mrs.  Grey's  and  I  was  considerably  worried  about  it.  But 
when,  finally,  I  did  go  and  had  been  most  kindly  received, 
I  explained  at  once  that  the  settling  of  myself  and  my  small 
baby  in  a  new  house  had,  until  then,  kept  me  too  busy  for 
any  calls.  Mrs.  Grey  hastened  to  assure  me  that  she  under- 
stood my  position  perfectly  and  had  not  thought  of  blaming 
me. 

"Indeed,  my  dear,"  she  said,  "I  knew  that  you  had  a  small 
baby  in  the  house  and  that  you  must  be  kept  constantly  oc- 
cupied. As  a  matter  of  fact  I  should  have  waived  ceremony 
and  come  myself  to  welcome  you  to  Washington  except  for 

28 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

one  thing  which  I  could  not  very  well  overlook,  and  that 
is — that  Mr.  Taft  has  not  yet  called  on  Mr.  Justice  Grey." 

I  think  I  have  rarely  seen  anything  more  satisfactorily 
amusing  than  the  expression  on  my  husband's  face  when  I 
told  him  this. 

But,  in  spite  of  the  friendliness  of  the  Justices  and  others, 
we  really  went  out  very  little.  On  one  occasion  when  my 
sister  Maria  had  been  visiting  us  for  several  weeks  we  went 
for  a  Sunday  night  supper  to  the  house  of  a  lady  whom 
Maria  had  known  very  well  in  Cincinnati.  She  was  living 
that  winter  in  Washington  and  seemed  to  be  rather  well 
pleased  with  her  social  success.  She  talked  loftily  through- 
out supper,  and  during  a  good  part  of  the  evening,  about 
the  dinner  parties  she  had  attended  and  the  grand  people 
she  had  met.  Then  just  as  we  were  about  to  start  home  she 
turned  to  my  sister  and  said : 

"And  have  you  been  much  entertained,  my  dear  Maria  ?" 

"Oh,  I've  been  enjoying  myself  tremendously,"  was  the 
answer. 

"Well,  with  whom  have  you  dined,  dear?"  persisted  our 
hostess. 

"Why,  we've  dined  with  the  Andersons,  with  the  German 
Ambassador,  with  the  Chief  Justice,  and  with  the  Maurys, 
and  with  the  French  Ambassador, — and  with,  oh,  a  number 
of  other  people." 

Our  hostess  was  visibly  impressed. 

"Why !  you  really  have  been  very  gay,  haven't  you,  dear !" 
she  exclaimed. 

When  we  got  into  our  cab  to  go  home  Maria  turned  to  my 
husband  and  said : 

"I  had  my  eye  on  you  all  the  time  I  was  talking,  Will 
Taft.  I  was  perfectly  certain  that  your  terrible  sense  of 
fact  would  overcome  you  and  that  you  would  blurt  out  that 
I  dined  with  all  those  people  on  the  same  evening  at  the 
same  dinner  party!" 

29 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

President  Harrison,  in  March,  1892,  appointed  my 
husband  on  the  Federal  Circuit  Bench,  so  once  more  I 
saw  him  a  colleague  of  men  almost  twice  his  age  and,  I 
feared,  fixed  in  a  groove  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  However, 
he  was  greatly  pleased  and  very  proud  to  hold  such  a  dig- 
nified and  responsible  position  at  the  age  of  thirty-four.  I 
think  he  enjoyed  the  work  of  the  following  eight  years  more 
than  any  he  has  ever  undertaken. 

We  moved  back  to  Cincinnati.  Mr.  Taft's  circuit  in- 
cluded parts  of  Ohio,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Michigan — 
reached  in  fact,  from  Lookout  Mountain  to  Marquette,  and 
he  was  much  away  from  home.  My  own  life  during  those 
years  in  Cincinnati  was  very  busy,  for,  in  addition  to  my 
occupation  with  family  and  friends,  I  became  interested  in 
a  number  of  civic  movements. 

My  principal  work  was  the  organisation  and  management 
of  the  Cincinnati  Orchestra  Association.  I  found,  at  last, 
a  practical  method  for  expressing  and  making  use  of  my  love 
and  knowledge  of  music. 

We  had  not  had  a  good  symphony  orchestra  in  the  city 
since  Theodore  Thomas  left,  but  with  our  music-loving  popu- 
lation it  was  only  necessary  that  somebody  should  take  the 
initiative  and  arouse  definite  enthusiasm  and  keep  it  going, 
in  order  to  establish  and  maintain  such  an  institution. 
There  were  many  public-spirited  citizens,  some  of  them  true 
music-loving  Germans,  and  I  saw  no  reason  why  I  should 
not  get  strong  popular  support  for  my  project.  I  was  not 
disappointed.  From  the  first  the  response  was  general  and 
generous  and  we  did  not  have  much  difficulty  in  raising  the 
necessary  funds  for  financing  the  orchestra,  although  in  addi- 
tion to  our  box-office  receipts,  we  had  to  secure  $30,000  a 
year  for  six  consecutive  years.  It  could  not  have  been  done 
had  it  not  been  for  such  liberal  friends  as  my  brother  and  sis- 
ter, Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  P.  Taf t,  Mr.  Charles  Krippendorf, 

30 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Mr.  M.  E.  Ingalls,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  L.  A.  Ault,  Mrs.  Charles 
Fleishmann,  Mr.  J.  G.  Schmidlapp  and  others. 

For  the  first  year  we  had  three  different  directors,  Mr. 
Seidl,  Mr.  Schradick  and  Mr.  Van  der  Stiicken,  who  came 
to  Cincinnati  and  led  two  concerts  each.  Then  we  secured 
Mr.  Van  der  Stiicken  as  a  permanent  leader  and  he  remained 
with  the  orchestra  ten  years. 

I  think  I  regretted  the  Cincinnati  Orchestra  Association 
more  than  anything  else  when  we  left  for  the  Philippines, 
but  I  left  it  in  good  and  well-trained  hands.  Mrs.  C.  R. 
Holmes,  who  succeeded  me  as  President  of  the  Association, 
had  taken  a  great  part  in  the  original  work  of  organisation 
and  management,  as  had  my  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  Charles  P. 
Taft,  and  others.  Through  their  efforts  the  orchestra  has 
been  enlarged  and  improved  and  it  is  still  a  source  of  great 
pride  and  satisfaction  to  the  city  of  Cincinnati.  Mrs. 
Charles  Taft  is  now  the  President  and  through  her  interest, 
activity  and  generosity  it  has  been  enabled  to  grow  in  ex- 
cellence. 

Except  for  the  orchestra,  our  life  was  tranquil;  quite  too 
settled,  I  thought,  and  filled  with  the  usual  homely  incidents 
connected  with  housekeeping  and  the  entertaining  develop- 
ment of  small  children.  My  youngest  child,  Charles,  was 
born  in  1897,  and  my  family  was  thus  complete. 

I  come  now  to  the  years  which  we  gave  to  the  Philippine 
Islands  and  I  must  say  that  I  wonder  yet  how  our  lot  hap- 
pened to  be  so  cast. 

There  had  never  been  any  unusual  interest  in  our  family 
as  to  the  results  of  the  Spanish-American  War.  Like  most 
patriotic  Americans  we  had  been  greatly  excited  while  the 
war  was  in  progress  and  had  discussed  its  every  phase  and 
event  with  a  warmth  of  approval,  or  disapproval,  as  the  case 
might  be,  but  it  did  not  touch  us  directly,  except  as  citizens, 
any  more  than  it  touched  the  vast  majority  of  the  people  of 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

the  United  States.  And  yet,  it  came  to  mean  more  to  us 
personally,  than  any  other  event  in  our  times.  The  whole 
course  of  my  husband's  career  was  destined  to  be  changed 
and  influenced  by  its  results. 

Mr.  Taft  was  strongly  opposed  to  taking  the  Philippines. 
He  was  not  an  anti-imperialist  in  the  sense  that  he  believed 
the  Constitution  required  us  to  keep  the  boundaries  of  the 
United  States  within  their  continental  limits,  but  he  thought 
the  Antipodes  rather  a  far  stretch  for  the  controlling  hand, 
and  he  thought  the  taking  of  the  Philippines  would  only 
add  to  our  problems  and  responsibilities  without  increasing, 
in  any  way,  the  effectiveness  and  usefulness  of  our  govern- 
ment. 

Oddly  enough,  he  had  expressed  himself  to  that  effect 
when  he  happened,  during  the  Spanish  War,  to  be  dining 
with  a  number  of  judges  including  Justice  Harlan  who, 
although  later  an  anti-imperialist,  was  at  that  time  strongly 
upholding  the  policy  of  taking  over  Spanish  territory  in 
both  oceans. 

Mr.  Taft  knew  just  about  as  much  about  the  Filipino 
people  as  the  average  American  knew  in  those  days.  What 
he  definitely  knew  was  that  they  had  been  for  more  than 
three  centuries  under  Spanish  dominion  and  that  they  now 
wanted  political  independence.  He  was  heartily  in  favour 
of  giving  it  to  them. 

It  was  one  day  in  January,  1900,  that  he  came  home 
greatly  excited  and  placed  before  me  a  telegram. 

"What  do  you  suppose  that  means?"  said  he. 

"I  would  like  to  see  you  in  Washington  on  important 
business  within  the  next  few  days.  On  Thursday  if  pos- 
sible," it  read.  And  it  was  signed — William  McKinley. 

We  didn't  know  and  we  couldn't  think  what  possible  busi- 
ness tfte  President  could  have  with  him.  I  began  to  conjure 
up  visions  of  Supreme  Court  appointments;  though  I  knew 
well  enough  that  Supreme  Court  appointments  were  not 

32 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

tendered  in  that  fashion  and  besides  there  was  no  vacancy. 

Mr.  Taft  lost  no  time  in  responding  to  the  President's 
summons  and  I  awaited  his  return  with  as  much  patience 
as  I  could  muster.  In  three  days  he  came  home  with  an 
expression  so  grave  that  I  thought  he  must  be  facing  impeach- 
ment. But  when  he  broke  his  news  to  me  it  gave  me  noth- 
ing but  pleasure. 

"The  President  wants  me  to  go  to  the  Philippine  Islands," 
he  said,  in  a  tone  he  might  have  used  in  saying:  "The 
President  wants  me  to  go  out  and  jump  off  the  court  house 
dome."  "Want  to  go?"  he  added. 

"Yes,  of  course,"  I  answered  without  a  moment's  hesi- 
tation. I  wasn't  sure  what  it  meant,  but  I  knew  instantly 
that  I  didn't  want  to  miss  a  big  and  novel  experience.  I 
have  never  shrunk  before  any  obstacles  when  I  had  an  op- 
portunity to  see  a  new  country  and  I  must  say  I  have  never 
regretted  any  adventure. 

"The  President  and  Mr.  Root  want  to  establish  a  civil 
government  in  the  Philippines,"  said  Mr.  Taft,  "and  they 
want  me  to  go  out  at  the  head  of  a  commission  to  do  it."  It 
was  only  after  I  had  accepted  the  invitation  to  go  ten  thou- 
sand miles  away  that  I  asked  for  an  explanation. 

In  answer  to  the  President's  proposal,  Mr.  Taft  said  that 
he  didn't  approve  of  the  acquisition  of  the  Philippines  in  the 
first  place,  and  that  in  the  second  place  he  knew  nothing 
about  colonial  government  and  had  had  really  no  experience 
in  executive  work  of  any  kind.  But  Mr.  McKinley  did  not 
accept  these  objections  as  final.  He  called  in  Mr.  Root, 
who  was  then  Secretary  of  War,  and  who  would  be  Mr. 
Taft's  chief  in  the  proposed  mission  to  the  Philippines,  and 
together  they  presented  the  case  so  strongly  that  my  hus- 
band could  not  help  but  waver  in  his  decision.  Neither 
Mr.  McKinley  nor  Mr.  Root  had  rejoiced  in  the  taking  over 
of  the  Philippines  for  that  matter,  but  that  was  beside  the 
question;  the  Philippines  were  taken,  and  it  behooved  the 

33 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

United  States  to  govern  them  until  such  time  as  their  people 
had  learned  the  difficult  art  of  governing  themselves. 

Mr.  Root  said : 

"The  work  to  be  done  in  the  Philippines  is  as  great  as  the 
work  Livingston  had  to  do  in  Louisiana.  It  is  an  oppor- 
tunity for  you  to  do  your  country  a  great  service  and  achieve 
for  yourself  a  reputation  for  the  finest  kind  of  constructive 
work.  You  have  had  a  very  fortunate  career.  While  you 
are  only  slightly  over  forty  you  have  had  eight  years  on  the 
Federal  Bench,  three  years  on  the  State  Bench  and  two  years 
as  Solicitor  General.  These  places  you  have  filled  well, 
but  they  have  been  places  which  involved  no  sacrifice  on  your 
part.  Here  is  a  field  which  calls  for  risk  and  sacrifice. 
Your  country  is  confronted  with  one  of  the  greatest  problems 
in  its  history,  and  you,  Judge  Taft,  are  asked  to  take  imme- 
diate charge  of  the  solution  of  that  problem  7,000  miles  away 
from  home.  You  are  at  the  parting  of  the  ways.  Will  you 
take  the  easier  course,  the  way  of  least  resistance,  with  the 
thought  that  you  had  an  opportunity  to  serve  your  country 
and  declined  it  because  of  its  possible  sacrifice,  or  will  you 
take  the  more  courageous  course  and,  risking  much,  achieve 
much?  This  work  in  the  Philippines  will  give  you  an  in- 
valuable experience  in  building  up  a  government  and  in  the 
study  of  laws  needed  to  govern  a  people,  and  such  experience 
cannot  but  make  you  a  broader,  better  judge  should  you  be 
called  upon  again  to  serve  your  country  in  that  capacity." 

My  husband  promised  to  consult  with  me  and  with  his 
brother  Charles  and  give  his  answer  in  a  few  days.  He 
didn't  know  whether  or  not  I  would  be  willing  to  go,  but 
that  was  a  question  soon  settled. 

His  resignation  of  his  judgeship  was  the  greatest  difficulty. 
The  President  told  him  he  did  not  think  it  would  be  at  all 
necessary  for  him  to  resign  since  the  work  in  the  Philippines 
would  take  only  about  six  months — nine  months  at  the  long- 
est— and  that  he  could  absent  himself  from  his  duties  for 

34 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

that  length  of  time,  and  for  such  a  purpose,  without  fear 
of  any  kind  of  unfortunate  consequences.  Mr.  Taft's  in- 
vestigation and  study  of  the  situation  immediately  convinced 
him  that  Mr.  McKinley  was  wrong  in  his  expectation  that 
the  work  could  be  done  so  quickly.  Nor  did  Mr.  Root  have 
any  such  idea.  Even  with  the  meagre  information  which 
was  then  available,  my  husband  at  once  saw  that  it  would  be 
years  before  the  Philippine  problem  would  begin  to  solve 
itself.  So  he  resigned  from  the  Bench;  the  hardest  thing 
he  ever  did. 

After  sending  in  his  acceptance  he  went  immediately  to 
Washington  to  discuss  with  Mr.  McKinley  and  Mr.  Root 
the  whole  situation  and,  especially,  the  names  of  four  other 
men  who  were  to  be  chosen  to  serve  with  him  on  the  Com- 
mission. He  had  met  Mr.  Worcester,  a  member  of  the  first 
Commission,  and  had  got  from  him  a  great  deal  of  valuable 
data.  If  Professor  Shurman,  the  chairman  of  the  first  Com- 
mission, had  become  a  member  of  the  second,  he  probably 
would  have  been  at  its  head,  but  he  did  not,  and  this  position 
fell  to  Mr.  Taft.  He  was  thereafter  known  as  President  of 
the  Commission,  until  civil  government  was  organised  in  the 
Philippines  and  be  became  governor. 

After  he  had  gone  to  Washington  I  began  at  once  to  make 
hasty,  and  I  may  say,  happy  preparations  for  my  adventure 
into  a  new  sphere.  That  it  was  alluring  to  me  I  did  not 
deny  to  anybody.  I  had  no  premonition  as  to  what  it  would 
lead  to ;  I  did  not  see  beyond  the  present  attraction  of  a  new 
and  wholly  unexplored  field  of  work  which  would  involve 
travel  in  far  away  and  very  interesting  countries.  I  read 
with  engrossing  interest  everything  I  could  find  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  Philippines,  but  a  delightful  vagueness  with  re- 
gard to  them,  a  vagueness  which  was  general  in  the  United 
States  at  that  time,  and  has  not,  even  yet,  been  entirely  dis- 
pelled, continued  in  my  mind.  There  were  few  books  to  be 
found,  and  those  I  did  find  were  not  specially  illuminating. 

35 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

I  gave  up  my  house  in  Cincinnati  and  stored  my  belong- 
ings, packing  for  shipment  to  the  Orient  only  such  things 
as  I  thought  would  be  absolutely  necessary.  We  were  to 
leave  almost  immediately  and  I  had  very  little  time  in  which 
to  do  a  great  many  things.  Mr.  Taft  came  back  to  Cincin- 
nati for  a  short  period  and  we  entered  upon  a  busy  season  of 
good-bye  hospitality.  Everybody  we  knew,  and  we  knew 
nearly  everybody,  wanted  to  give  us  a  farewell  dinner  or 
entertainment  of  some  sort.  Mr.  Taft,  especially,  was  feted 
in  a  way  which  proved  to  him  how  much  more  widely  he  was 
valued  in  his  native  town  than  he  had  ever  realised.  In  the 
opinions  of  people  then  we  were  going,  sure  enough,  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  and  many  of  our  friends  were  as  mournful 
about  it  as  if  they  had  private  foreknowledge  that  it  was  to 
be  a  fatal  adventure. 

When  the  banquets  and  dinners  and  luncheons  and  recep- 
tions and  teas  had  all  been  given ;  when  the  speeches  had  all 
been  made,  and  the  good-byes  had  all  been  said,  Mr.  Taft 
hastened  off  to  Washington  once  more  to  meet  his  colleagues 
and  make  final  arrangements,  and  I  was  not  to  see  him  again 
until  we  met  in  San  Francisco  a  week  before  the  date  set 
for  sailing. 

I  asked  my  sister  Maria  to  go  with  me  for  the  first  year, 
and  she  accepted  with  delight.  So,  one  morning  in  early 
April,  with  our  world  waving  at  us  from  the  platform  of  the 
station,  we  started  south  to  join  the  Southern  Pacific  rail- 
road at  New  Orleans  and  to  make  our  way  from  there  to 
Los  Angeles  and  so  to  San  Francisco. 

I  had  with  me  my  three  children,  Robert,  Helen  and  Char- 
lie. Robert  was  ten  years  old,  Helen  eight,  while  Charlie, 
my  baby,  was  just  a  little  over  two.  It  did  not  occur  to  me 
that  it  was  a  task  to  take  them  on  such  a  long  journey,  or 
that  they  would  be  exposed  to  any  danger  through  the  ex- 
perience. They  were  normal,  healthy  and  very  self-reliant 
little  people  and  I  made  preparations  for  their  going  with- 

36 


CHARLIE  TAFT  WHEN    HE  WENT  TO  THE   PHILIPPINES 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

out  giving  the  matter  a  moment's  unhappy  consideration. 
But  I  was  to  receive  a  few  shocks  in  this  connection  later  on. 
One  of  these  came  when  I  learned  that  some  members  of  the 
party  had  left  their  children  at  home  for  fear  of  the  Philip- 
pine climate.  Then  one  day,  at  the  old  Palace  Hotel  in  San 
Francisco,  I  was  sitting  on  guard  over  Charlie  as  he  played 
up  and  down  a  wide  corridor,  and  reading  a  book  at  inter- 
vals, when  along  came  an  odd-looking  elderly  gentleman 
who  stopped  to  regard  the  boy  with  a  smile  of  the  kindliest 
amusement.  Charlie  was  an  attractive  child.  Even  I 
couldn't  help  but  see  that,  and  I  was  used  to  having  people 
stop  to  watch  him.  He  had  big,  dark  eyes,  soft,  brown 
curls,  very  deep  dimples,  and  a  charming  smile  that  was 
always  in  evidence.  The  elderly  gentleman  stood  watching 
him  for  some  little  time,  his  face  growing  gradually  very 
grave,  and  I  wondered  what  he  was  thinking  about.  He 
didn't  keep  me  wondering  long.  After  a  few  moments  he 
stepped  deliberately  up  to  me  and  said : 

"Madam,  I  understand  you  are  going  to  the  Philippine 
Islands.  Now  I  want  to  know  if  you  are  going  to  take  that 
great,  big,  beautiful  boy  out  to  that  pest-ridden  hole  and 
expose  him  to  certain  destruction." 

I  grabbed  my  great,  big,  beautiful  boy  and  rushed  off  to 
my  room,  and  it  was  a  relief  eventually  to  learn  that  the 
awful  Philippine  climate,  at  least  so  far  as  children  were 
concerned,  existed,  largely,  in  people's  minds. 

We  found  intense  interest  in  our  mission  in  California  and 
San  Francisco.  If  there  were  any  anti-imperialists  there, 
they  successfully  concealed  themselves.  The  East  was  un- 
comfortably crowded  with  them  in  those  days,  but  the  evi- 
dent interest  and  profit  that  the  West  coast  would  derive 
from  a  large  Philippine  trade  may  have  been  responsible 
for  the  favourable  attitude  of  the  Californians.  However, 
we  must  not  impeach  their  patriotism,  and  we  ought  to  at- 
tribute some  of  their  enthusiasm  in  reference  to  the  Philip- 

37 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

pines,  and  our  assuming  control  over  them,  to  the  natural 
enterprise  of  a  people  who  had  themselves  gone  so  far  in  a 
land  of  development  and  hope. 

Everything  that  could  be  done  to  make  smooth  the  path 
of  the  new  Commission  was  done.  At  their  own  request  the 
powers  of  the  Commissioners  were  carefully  defined  so  that 
complications  with  the  military  government  then  in  force  in 
the  islands,  might  be  avoided.  They  were  given  equal  rank 
with  ministers  plenipotentiary  in  the  matter  of  naval  cour- 
tesies and  precedence;  and  Mr.  Root  drafted  a  letter  of  in- 
structions, which  the  President  signed,  outlining  their  duties 
in  such  precise  and  correct  detail  that  it  was  afterward 
adopted  and  ratified  in  its  entirety  in  the  act  of  Congress  by 
which  the  Philippine  government  was  established. 

So — I  believed  we  were  going  to  have  "smooth  sailing" 
in  every  sense,  when  we  started  on  the  long  voyage  with 
which  began  this  interesting  experience. 


CHAPTER  III 

TO    THE    PHILIPPINES 

THE  United  States  Army  Transport  Hancock  had  been  as- 
signed to  the  Commission  for  the  trip  from  San  Francisco 
to  Manila  and  it  was  at  noon  on  a  pleasant  day  in  mid-April 
— the  seventeenth — that  she  pulled  away  from  the  crowded 
dock  and  headed  straight  for  the  Golden  Gate  and  the  long 
path  across  the  Pacific  that  leads  to  the  other  side  of  the 
world.  There  were  forty-five  people  in  our  party  and,  al- 
though most  of  us  had  met  for  the  first  time  in  San  Francisco, 
we  soon  became  well  acquainted,  as  people  do  on  shipboard, 
and  proceeded  at  once  to  prove  ourselves  to  be  a  most  har- 
monious company. 

The  Hancock  was  the  old  Arizona,  a  one-time  greyhound 
of  the  Atlantic,  which  the  Government  had  purchased  and 
remodelled  for  service  as  an  army  transport.  A  consider- 
able fleet  of  such  vessels  plied  the  Pacific  at  that  time,  carry- 
ing large  consignments  of  troops  to  and  from  the  Philippines 
and,  though  there  are  not  so  many  now,  I  still  read  with 
interest  of  the  comings  and  goings  of  ships  whose  old, 
friendly  sounding  names  became  so  familiar  to  us  in  the 
course  of  our  residence  in  the  East.  The  Grant,  the  Sher- 
man, the  Sheridan,  the  Thomas,  and  others,  all  named 
for  great  American  generals,  awaken  memories  of  interesting 
days.  The  Hancock  was  later  given  up  by  the  Army  and 
turned  over  to  the  Navy  on  account  of  her  heavy  consump- 
tion of  coal.  She  is  now  used  as  a  recruiting  ship  at  the 
Brooklyn  Navy  Yard. 

We  found  her  very  comfortable.  There  were  few  people 
aboard  besides  the  members  of  our  party,  and,  as  she  was 
equipped  to  carry  the  officers  and  men  of  an  entire  regiment, 
we  found  ourselves  commodiously  quartered.  Moreover, 
the  commissary  of  the  transport  service  had  received  instruc- 

39 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

tions  to  give  us  excellent  fare;  this,  I  believe,  through  the 
thoughtful  kindness  of  Mr.  McKinley  himself. 

Mr.  McKinley  never  failed  to  take  a  personal  interest 
in  the  everyday  welfare  of  all  those  in  his  administration 
who  came  under  his  own  observation  and  we  were  made  to 
feel  this  throughout  our  experience  on  the  Philippine  Com- 
mission, while  he  lived.  On  every  appropriate  occasion 
we  were  certain  to  receive  from  him  some  kindly  compli- 
ment, a  cablegram  or  other  communication,  and  it  made 
everybody  who  came  within  range  of  his  influence  anxious 
to  serve  him  well  and  to  make  the  work  which  was  being 
done  satisfactory  and  pleasing  to  him.  I  owe  to  our  con- 
nection with  President  McKinley's  administration  some  of 
my  happiest  recollections. 

The  men  who  made  up  the  second  Philippine  Commission 
were  Mr.  Taf t,  General  Luke  E.  Wright  of  Memphis,  Ten- 
nessee; Judge  Henry  C.  Ide  of  Vermont,  Professor  Dean 
C.  Worcester  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  and  Professor 
Bernard  Moses  of  the  University  of  California.  A  short 
introduction  of  my  husband's  colleagues  and  the  members 
of  their  families  who  went  with  them  to  the  Philippines  will 
be  necessary  at  this  point,  because  I  was  destined  to  be  con- 
stantly associated  with  them  during  four  of  the  most  interest- 
ing years  of  my  life.  Our  co-operation,  social  and  govern- 
mental, was  based  upon  a  common  purpose,  and  our  attach- 
ment to  this  purpose,  as  well  as  the  bonds  of  friendship 
which  united  us,  were  greatly  strengthened  by  the  oppo- 
sition we  had  to  meet  for  some  months  after  we  reached 
Manila,  not  only  from  the  Filipinos,  but  also  from  the 
military  government  which  the  Commission  was  sent  out 
gradually  to  replace. 

The  men  of  the  Commission,  coming,  as  they  did,  from 
different  parts  of  the  United  States,  were  widely  contrasted, 
no  less  in  associations  than  in  their  varied  accents  and  family 
traditions. 

40 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

General  Wright  was,  and  is,  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in 
Tennessee,  and  enjoyed,  at  the  time  of  his  appointment  on 
the  Commission,  the  finest  practice  in  Memphis.  He  is  a 
Democrat;  and  old  enough  to  have  been  a  lieutenant  in  the 
Civil  War  on  the  Confederate  side.  But  perhaps  his  finest 
laurels  for  bravery  and  devotion  to  duty  were  won  at  the 
time  when  he  exerted  himself  to  save  Memphis  in  the 
days  when  she  was  in  the  grip  of  a  terrible  epidemic  of 
yellow  fever.  I  don't  know  the  exact  year,  but  the  epi- 
demic was  so  out  of  control  that  all  who  could,  left  the 
city,  while  General  Wright  remained  to  organise  such 
resistance  as  could  be  made  to  the  spread  of  the  dread  dis- 
ease. 

Mrs.  Wright  was  a  daughter  of  the  famous  Admiral 
Semmes  of  the  Confederate  Navy  and  for  some  time  after 
the  war  she  travelled  with  her  father  in  Mexico  and  abroad, 
thereby  acquiring  at  an  early  age  a  very  cosmopolitan 
outlook.  Admiral  Semmes  was  a  great  linguist  and  Mrs. 
Wright  inherited  his  gift.  She  had  learned  to  speak  Span- 
ish in  her  girlhood,  so  when  she  arrived  in  Manila  she  had 
only  to  renew  her  knowledge  of  the  language.  General 
and  Mrs.  Wright  had  with  them  their  daughter  Katrina, 
who  was  then  about  fourteen  years  old,  but  their  two  sons, 
one  a  naval  officer,  did  not  join  them  in  the  Philippines  until 
later. 

General  Wright  had,  on  the  whole,  the  most  delightful 
social  qualities  of  anybody  on  the  Commission.  He  had  a 
keen  sense  of  humour  and  could  recount  a  great  number  of 
interesting  personal  experiences  with  a  manner  and  wit 
which  made  him,  always,  a  delightful  companion.  He  was 
a  devotee  of  pinochle  and  he  instructed  the  entire  party 
in  the  game  until  it  was  played  from  one  end  of  the  ship 
to  the  other.  He  was  slow  to  anger,  very  deliberate  and 
kindly  in  his  judgments,  and  offered  at  times  a  decided  con- 
trast to  his  wife  who  was  a  little  more  hasty  and  not  infre- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

quently  founded  judgments  on  what  he  would  jocosely 
criticise  as  "a  woman's  reason." 

Judge  Ide  was  born  and  bred  a  Vermonter  and  had  many 
of  the  rugged  characteristics  of  the  Green  Mountain  State, 
not  the  least  among  which  is  a  certain  indefinable,  but 
peculiarly  New  England  caution.  In  addition  to  a  large 
and  active  law  practice  in  both  New  Hampshire  and  Ver- 
mont, he  had  banking  connections  through  which  he  had 
gained  a  better  knowledge  of  business  and  finance  than  is 
possessed  by  the  average  lawyer.  Moreover,  a  long  term  as 
Chief  Justice  of  Samoa  had  given  him  diplomatic  experience 
and  a  knowledge  of  the  Polynesian  races  which  were  to  serve 
him  well  in  his  work  in  the  Philippines.  As  Chief  Justice 
he  exercised  diplomatic  and  consular  as  well  as  judicial 
functions,  and  his  position  brought  him  in  close  relations 
with  the  English  and  German  officials  of  the  joint  protec- 
torate of  the  Samoan  islands  and  in  constant  social  contact 
with  the  naval  officers  of  many  countries  whose  ships  very 
frequently  called  at  Apia.  He  was  a  widower  with  two 
young  daughters. 

These  daughters,  Anne  and  Marjorie,  or  "the  two  Ide 
girls"  as  they  were  then  popularly  known,  displayed  no  sign 
of  Puritan  ancestry  or  upbringing.  They  were  just  remark- 
ably beautiful  and  altogether  charming  and  delightful.  A 
large  part  of  their  girlhood  had  been  spent  in  Samoa;  they 
were  the  product  of  an  intermittent,  but  very  picturesque 
education,  and  there  was  ingrained  in  them  some  of  that 
happy-go-lucky  attitude  toward  life,  and  that  freedom  from 
useless  convention  which  the  Occidental  is  not  unlikely  to 
acquire  in  the  Orient. 

These  girls  had,  in  Samoa,  been  great  friends  of  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson.  Anne,  the  elder,  was  the  especial  favourite 
of  the  beauty-loving  invalid  and  he  willed  to  her  his  birth- 
day, as  can  be  learned  from  his  Samoan  letters.  She  was 
born  near  Christmas  time  and  had  never  known  what  it  was 

42 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

to  have  her  birthday  celebrated,  a  great  deprivation  in  child- 
hood. But  she  now  celebrates  as  her  own  the  birthday  of 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  and  it  is,  I  believe,  her  most  cher- 
ished possession. 

Marjorie,  whose  career,  ever  since  our  first  trip  together,  I 
have  followed  with  the  greatest  affection  and  interest,  had 
even  more  of  the  care-free  attitude  than  Anne.  She  used 
to  convulse  us  with  cruelly  funny  accounts  of  her  adventures 
with  admirers,  of  whom  there  were  many,  and  with  descrip- 
tions of  some  of  the  strange  acquaintances  she  made  during 
her  travels  with  her  father. 

Among  the  passengers  on  the  Hancock  was  Dr.  Kneedler, 
an  army  surgeon,  with  his  wife  and  two  little  girls.  These 
little  girls  were  exceedingly  bright  and  inquisitive.  Young 
ladies  and  gentlemen  had  particular  and  irresistible  attrac- 
tions for  them  and  the  Ide  young  ladies  kept  them  very 
much  occupied.  The  Ide  young  ladies  didn't  encourage 
their  attentions  and  this  fact  engendered  their  hostility. 
They  therefore  referred  to  the  Misses  Ide  as  "them  there 
Ides."  With  their  delightful  sense  of  humour  the  Ides,  of 
course,  rejoiced  in  the  designation  and  in  all  the  thirteen 
years  since  then  they  have  never  met  Mr.  Taf t  or  me  with- 
out presenting  themselves  as  "them  there  Ides." 

The  Misses  Ide  were  destined  to  be  the  unrivalled  belles 
of  Manila  society  for  six  years  and  then  to  move  on  to 
broader  social  spheres.  Anne  was  married  to  Mr.  Bourke 
Cochran  shortly  after  her  father  left  the  Philippines,  but 
Marjorie  continued  to  be  her  father's  companion  for  several 
years,  going  with  him  to  Madrid  when  he  was  appointed 
Minister  to  Spain  and  presiding  over  the  American  Legation 
there  until  she  married  Mr.  Shane  Leslie  and  went  to  Lon- 
don to  live. 

General  Wright,  Judge  Ide  and  Mr.  Taft  were  the  law- 
yers on  the  Commission  and  it  was  felt  that  their  familiarity 
with  law  and  governmental  matters  greatly  enhanced  the 

43 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

strength  and  preparedness  of  the  Commission  for  the  work 
they  had  to  do. 

Mr.  Worcester  was  an  assistant  professor  at  the  University 
of  Michigan.  He  too  was  a  Vermonter,  with  quite  as  much 
for  liter  in  re,  but  with  somewhat  less  of  the  suaviter  in  mo  do 
than  Judge  Ide  inherently  had,  or  had  acquired  in  his  Samoan 
experience. 

Mr.  Worcester  was  the  only  member  of  the  party  who  had 
ever  been  to  the  Philippines  before.  I  think  he  had  been 
there  twice  with  scientific  expeditions  before  the  Battle  of 
Manila  Bay  had  thrust  the  guardianship  of  the  Filipinos 
upon  our  country,  and  in  the  course  of  his  trips,  with  his  flu- 
ency in  Spanish  as  it  is  spoken  in  the  Philippines,  he  had 
acquired  a  very  intimate  knowledge  of  the  people  and  their 
customs,  as  well  as  of  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  islands.  He 
had  written  a  book  on  the  Philippines  which  came  out  at  a 
most  fortunate  time,  just  when  Dewey's  victory  had  turned 
the  eyes  of  the  country  upon  that  never-before-thought-of 
corner  of  the  world.  This  book  led  to  his  appointment  on 
the  first  Commission  and  his  useful,  loyal,  courageous  and 
effective  labours  with  that  body  led  Mr.  McKinley  to  ap- 
point him  on  the  second. 

He  is  a  large,  forceful  man  with  rather  abrupt  manners 
and  very  decided  opinions  and  perhaps  no  greater  contrast 
could  be  imagined  than  exists  between  him  and  Mrs.  Worces- 
ter, who,  in  outward  seeming,  is  the  frailest  kind  of  little 
woman,  with  a  sweet  face  and  engagingly  gentle  manners 
which  suggest  timidity.  Mrs.  Worcester  has  proved  herself 
to  possess  the  frailty  of  flexible  steel.  At  that  time  we  were 
quite  concerned  about  her,  I  remember,  thinking  she  would 
not  be  able  to  endure  the  Philippine  climate  even  for  a  short 
period.  But  she  has  lived  there  from  that  day  to  this.  She 
has  been  with  her  husband  through  many  experiences  from 
which  the  strongest  woman  would  shrink,  toiling  with  him 
over  hundreds  of  miles  of  mountain  and  jungle  trail  on  his 

44 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

frequent  expeditions  into  the  countries  of  the  wild  tribes 
and,  meeting  every  difficulty  without  comment.  She 
is  in  excellent  health  and  is  a  living  refutation  of  the  familiar 
exaggerations  as  to  the  effect  of  the  climate.  They  had  with 
them  two  little  white  haired  children,  one  of  them  quite  del- 
icate, who  have  grown  up  in  the  Philippines  strong  and 
healthy  and  have  received  most  of  their  education  in  the 
schools  established  there  under  American  government. 

The  last  member  of  the  Commission  was  Professor  Ber- 
nard Moses  of  the  political  and  historical  department  of  the 
University  of  California.  He  was  a  man  of  profound  learn- 
ing, a  Connecticut  Yankee,  combining  a  very  excellent 
knowledge  of  business  with  his  unusual  qualifications  as  an 
historian,  economist  and  student  of  politics.  He  was  espe- 
cially familiar  with  all  Spanish-American  countries,  had 
travelled  extensively  in  the  South  American  republics  and 
had  written  a  learned  book  on  the  constitution  of  Colombia. 
My  husband  always  says  that  he  thinks  Mr.  McKinley  exer- 
cised the  wisest  discretion  in  the  selection  of  all  the  members 
of  this  Commission  since  they  possessed,  among  them,  qualifi- 
cations for  every  line  of  work  in  practical  government  and 
original  research. 

Mrs.  Moses,  a  graduate  from  the  University  of  California, 
was  a  very  attractive  woman.  She  had  a  gift  for  vivid  de- 
scription and  for  seeing  the  funny  side  of  every  situation. 
Her  book,  "Unofficial  Letters  of  an  Official's  Wife,"  gives  an 
interesting  and  accurate  picture  of  social  life  in  the  early  days 
of  military  rule,  which  are  known  in  Manila  history  as  "the 
days  of  the  Empire"  and  of  that  period  when  American  civil 
government  was  in  the  process  of  organisation.  Her  wit 
sometimes  had  a  suggestion  of  the  caustic  in  it,  but  she  never 
failed  to  contribute  her  quota  to  the  day's  amusement. 

There  were  many  other  interesting  members  of  the  party, 
including  Mr.  Arthur  Fergusson,  the  Spanish  secretary,  and 
Mrs.  Fergusson,  Mr.  Frank  A.  Branagan,  the  disbursing 

45 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

officer,  and  Mrs.  Branagan,  and  several  private  secretaries 
with  their  families. 

The  voyage  from  San  Francisco  to  Honolulu  was  quite 
perfect.  As  we  sailed  toward  the  tropics  the  weather  grad- 
ually grew  warmer  and  the  sheltered  decks  became  the  most 
attractive  part  of  the  ship.  The  promenade  deck  of  the 
Hancock  reaches  from  bow  to  stern.  I  believe  there  is  a 
regular  term  to  describe  such  ship  construction, — "decked 
over  all"  is  it*? — but  to  me  it  was  just  a  very  long  deck  which 
served  unusually  well  for  exercise.  The  Commission  held 
regular  business  sessions  in  a  cabin  which  had  been  fitted  up 
for  the  purpose,  but  when  work  was  over  they  would  start 
on  a  long  march  around  and  around  the  deck,  covering  many 
miles  each  day.  My  husband  was  especially  industrious  and 
walked  one  man  after  another  "off  his  feet"  until,  finally,  he 
was  obliged  to  finish  his  long  tramp  alone.  He  set  himself 
the  task  of  so  many  miles  a  day,  so  many  times  around  the 
deck  being  a  mile,  and  to  keep  count  of  laps  requires  some 
concentration.  His  quiet  persistence  in  this  kind  of  exercise 
was  calculated  to  make  the  lazy  onlooker  intensely  nervous, 
and  when  I  had  done  my  modest  little  turn  I  was  always  glad 
to  indulge  in  a  sort  of  counter-concentration  at  a  whist  table, 
or  at  General  Wright's  ever  constant  pinochle. 

Altogether  the  days  passed  very  pleasantly  and  we  were  a 
very  merry  and  friendly  party  by  the  time  we  reached  Hon- 
olulu. 

At  Honolulu  I  got  my  first  glimpse  of  real  tropics,  and  I 
was  enchanted.  It  was  a  glorious  sensation  for  me  that 
April  morning  when  I  saw  these  mid-Pacific  islands,  for  the 
first  time,  rise  before  me  out  of  a  white-capped  sea;  clear- 
cut  in  an  atmosphere  which  seems  never  to  be  blurred  by 
mist. 

American  energy,  ambition  and  initiative  have  wrought 
great  material  changes  in  the  islands  and  these,  which  were 
even  then  important,  were  brought  to  our  admiring  attention 

46 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

later  on.  I  shall  always  think  of  Hawaii, — of  the  island 
of  Oahu,  rather, — as  it  appeared  to  me  then  when  our  ship 
steamed  past  Diamond  Head,  skirted  the  high  breakers  of 
Waikiki  and  made  its  way  up  through  the  bright  waters  of 
the  bay  into  the  harbour  of  Honolulu.  Honolulu  is  a  little, 
modern  city  lying,  all  in  sight,  against  the  green  of  a  narrow, 
gently-sloping,  peak-encircled  valley. 

The  Punchbowl,  a  spent  and  emptied  volcano,  outlined  in 
perfect  form  against  the  higher  hills  behind  it,  plainly  tells 
the  story  of  the  spectacular  construction  of  the  islands  and 
makes  it  almost  possible  to  visualise  their  sudden  rise  from 
the  sea.  They  are  not  very  old,  according  to  scientific  meas- 
urements of  time,  but  they  are  old  enough,  at  any  rate,  to 
have  clothed  themselves  in  the  most  brilliant  luxuriance, 
which  is  the  first  thing  to  impress  the  traveller  as  his  ship  sails 
into  the  harbour. 

The  brilliance  from  the  ship's  deck  is  the  brilliance  of 
every  imaginable  shade  of  green,  massed  against  the  tower- 
ing, pointed  hills  and  picked  into  contrasts  of  high-light  and 
shadow  by  a  sun  and  atmosphere  peculiar  to  the  tropics. 
Once  ashore,  the  green  foliage  becomes  the  background  for 
a  wealth  of  blooming  flowers,  flowers  everywhere,  of  un- 
numbered different  varieties,  with  the  flaming  hibiscus  in 
every  garden,  striking  the  high  note  of  colour.  Until  we  left 
Honolulu  laden  with  "leis" — long  festoons  of  flower  petals 
which  are  thrown  upon  the  shoulders  of  departing  friends 
and  visitors — there  were  always  flowers. 

And  with  the  flowers  and  the  foliage  and  the  tall  palm 
trees  and  the  warm  tropic  sunlight,  there  is  music,  the  music 
of  the  native  which  greets  one  in  welcome  at  the  dock  and 
contributes  constantly  to  the  spirit  of  festivity  until  the 
departing  ship  gets  too  far  from  shore  to  catch  the  strains  of 
the  farewell  song  "Aloha"  whose  closing  words :  "Until  we 
meet,  until  we  meet  again,"  linger  long  in  the  mind  of  the 
grateful  recipient  of  Hawaiian  hospitality. 

47 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

The  first  thing  we  were  to  learn  when  our  ship  came  up 
into  the  harbour  was  that  the  bubonic  plague  had  been  epi- 
demic in  Honolulu  for  a  long  time.  It  was  our  first  en- 
counter with  this  terror  of  the  East.  There  had  been 
seventy-one  cases  in  all,  and  sixty-one  deaths.  Six 
Europeans  had  contracted  the  disease  and  of  these  four 
had  died.  When  we  dropped  anchor  we  were  at  once 
boarded  by  the  local  health  officer,  Dr.  Carmichael  of 
the  Marine  Hospital  Service,  who  was  accompanied  by 
United  States  Minister  Sewell  and  Consul  General  Hay- 
ward.  They  wanted  us  to  land,  of  course,  and  we  were 
very  anxious  to  do  so,  but  as  the  quarantine  was  not  yet 
raised  they  could  not  answer  for  the  attitude  of  the  Japanese 
health  officers  when  we  got  to  Yokohama.  Our  going  ashore 
might  result  in  a  long  detention  in  quarantine  for  ourselves 
and,  aside  from  the  discomfort  of  this,  we  could  not  afford 
the  delay.  There  was  no  particular  danger  for  us  per- 
sonally, since  no  new  cases  had  been  reported  for  twenty- 
four  days,  but  it  was  all  a  question  of  being  able  to  land  later 
in  Japan.  It  was  really  too  much  of  a  disappointment; 
there  was  not  a  dissenting  voice  on  that  score,  and  Honolulu 
kept  getting  more  and  more  attractive  as  the  possibility 
dawned  on  us  that  we  might  not  see  it  at  all.  But  it  was 
arranged.  We  sent  for  the  Japanese  vice-Consul  and  ex- 
plained matters  to  him  and  he  finally  agreed  to  hold  himself 
responsible  for  our  breaking  the  quarantine,  in  so  far  as  it 
concerned  Japan,  if  we  would  keep  our  ship  out  in  the  stream 
instead  of  tying  up  at  the  dock,  and  permit  no  member  of 
the  crew  to  go  ashore  during  our  stay.  This  we  readily 
agreed  to  do  and  made  our  plans  accordingly.  We,  too, 
were  to  live  on  board  the  Hancock,  but  there  were  any  num- 
ber of  harbour  launches  put  at  our  disposal. 

We  were  received  by  the  Americans  in  Honolulu  with  the 
utmost  cordiality  and  immediately  found  ourselves  sharing 
the  exhilarating  suspense  with  which  the  people  were  then 

48 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

awaiting  the  passage  of  the  bill  in  Congress  which  was  to 
make  the  Hawaiian  Islands  a  part  of  the  United  States. 
The  first  thing  the  Commission  did  was  to  call  on  President 
Dole,  of  the  provisional  republican  government,  and  with 
him  they  met  the  Ministers  of  the  Treasury  and  the  Interior, 
Mr.  Damon  and  Mr.  Young.  Indeed,  we  met  all  the  people 
who  had  the  affairs  of  the  islands  in  hand  and  were  most 
delightfully  entertained  by  them.  We  found  them  of  one 
mind,  just  anxiously  waiting  to  be  annexed  to  the  United 
States.  The  men,  who  realised  the  importance  of  our  mis- 
sion to  the  Philippines,  were  eager  to  foregather  with  the 
Commission  and  discuss  with  them,  long  and  earnestly,  this 
broad  American  venture  and  its  possible  effect  upon  the  fu- 
ture prosperity  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  but  in  so  far  as  I 
was  concerned,  nothing  in  the  way  of  state  problems  was 
allowed  to  intrude  itself  upon  their  purely  social  hospitality. 
There  were  dinners  and  luncheons  and  teas  and  receptions, 
and,  in  the  intervals,  sight-seeing. 

There  are  a  number  of  entertaining  things  to  do  in  Hon- 
olulu and  while  I  do  not  wish  to  make  this,  in  any  way,  a 
book  of  travel,  I  must  record  my  impressions  of  the  world  as 
they  came  to  me. 

The  Hawaiian  Islands  have  a  background  of  romantic 
history  which  makes  the  museums,  the  public  buildings  and 
even  the  cemeteries  of  the  capital  extremely  interesting.  Be- 
sides all  of  which  there  are  some  wonderful  views  which 
every  one  must  see. 

The  trip  to  Nuuani  Pali  is  the  first  thing  to  be  undertaken 
in  Honolulu,  perhaps  because  it  is  the  greatest  thing  on  the 
island  of  Oahu.  We  didn't  know  what  the  Pali  was, — had 
no  idea.  It  was  just  the  place  to  go,  so  we  went, — the  very 
first  day.  We  drove  up  the  valley  over  a  perfect  road  which 
wound  in  and  out  past  beautiful,  palm-shaded  country 
homes,  and  along  the  bank  of  a  noisy,  crystal-clear  little 
mountain  stream,  until  we  came  to  a  point  which  looked  to 

49 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

me  like  the  "jumping  off  place."  And  it  is;  the  "jumping 
off  place"  is  the  Pali.  The  road  turns  sharp  around  the  solid 
rock  wall  of  the  cliff  and  winds  its  way  on  down  into  the  val- 
ley on  the  other  side,  but  it  is  a  distinct  surprise  to  find  that 
it  doesn't  end  right  there.  The  Pali  is  the  Pass  of  the 
Winds ;  the  meeting  place  of  all  the  young  hurricanes  of  the 
Pacific.  They  say  the  winds  in  the  Pali  are  never  still. 
We  were  flattened  out  against  the  wall  of  the  cliff,  our  hats 
were  torn  from  our  heads  and  we  had  to  hold  onto  our  coats 
for  dear  life,  but  before  us  lay  one  of  the  grandest  spectacles 
in  the  whole  world.  Coral-tinted,  purple,  rose  and  bright- 
blue  sea;  beetling,  pointed,  terrible  cliffs,  and  a  broad,  green 
plain  running  down  to  a  surf -washed  ribbon  of  beach ;  a  pan- 
orama as  wide  as  the  compass  of  vision.  I  have  been  back 
since  then  thinking  that,  on  first  sight,  I  might  have  over- 
estimated the  grandeur  of  the  Pali.  But  I  didn't.  It  is 
one  of  the  world's  great  views.  And  it  has  its  touch  of  sav- 
age history  too.  It  was  up  these  hills  and  over  the  cliffs  of 
the  Pali  that  King  Kamehameha  drove  to  certain  death  the 
offending  hordes  in  arms  against  his  sovereignty.  There  was 
no  escape  for  them.  Once  in  this  pass  they  had  either  to  go 
over  the  precipice  or  back  against  the  spears  of  the  enemy. 
This  being  history,  and  not  myth,  it  adds  much  to  the  thrill 
of  the  spectacle. 

After  a  visit  to  the  indescribable  "aquarium  of  the  painted 
fishes" — painted,  I  suppose,  by  the  bright  sun-rays  in  the 
coral  shallows  of  the  tropic  seas — we  went,  as  guests  of  Mr. 
Carter,  a  prominent  member  of  the  American  colony,  who 
afterward  became  governor  of  the  islands,  out  to  Waikiki 
Beach  for  surf-bathing, — or,  surf-riding,  as  it  is  more  aptly 
called. 

Surf-riding  at  Waikiki  Beach  is  a  great  game.  In  the  first 
place  the  surf  there  doesn't  look  as  if  any  human  being  would 
dare  venture  into  it;  but  when  you  see  a  beautiful,  slim, 
brown  native,  naked  save  for  short  swimming  trunks,  come 

50 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

gliding  down  a  high  white  breaker,  poised  like  a  Mercury, 
erect  on  a  single  narrow  plank — it  looks  delightfully  exhil- 
arating. It  took  me  some  time  to  make  up  my  mind,  but 
after  sufficient  persuasion  I  finally  decided  to  risk  my  life 
with  the  others.  Dressed  in  bathing  suits,  we  were  taken 
out  beyond  the  line  of  breakers  in  long  canoes  with  outriggers 
and,  with  a  native  at  prow  and  stern  armed  with  broad 
paddles  to  guide  the  craft,  we  rode  in  on  the  crest  of  the 
waves.  Even  this  modified  version  of  the  natives'  foolhardy 
performance  is  dangerous  enough.  There  is  every  likelihood 
of  an  upset  and  not  any  of  us  could  be  said  to  swim  expertly, 
so  there  was  great  excitement  when  one  member  of  the  party 
after  another  was  plunged,  out  of  depth,  into  the  foaming 
and  seething  water.  Two  members  of  our  party,  indeed,  had 
a  narrow  escape,  though  we  didn't  know  it  at  the  time.  Gen- 
eral Wright  and  Judge  Ide  were  capsized  in  a  particularly 
vicious  breaker  and  Judge  Ide  at  once  began  to  make  frantic 
efforts  to  attract  attention  and  secure  aid,  but  in  the  confu- 
sion his  signs  of  distress  were  taken  for  indications  of  vast 
enjoyment  and  he  would  have  been  left  to  drown  if  he  hadn't 
been  washed  ashore  by  the  force  of  the  surf.  General 
Wright,  though  much  the  better  swimmer,  had  no  less  diffi- 
culty, and  they  were  both  quite  white  and  shaken  when  they 
crawled  up  on  the  beach. 

We  stayed  four  days  in  this  "Paradise  of  the  Pacific,"  dur- 
ing which  we  made  many  interesting  trips,  were  introduced 
to  many  strange  Hawaiian  customs  and  were  regaled  with 
many  feasts,  not  always,  I  may  say,  particularly  appetizing. 
I  have  had  in  my  time,  for  politeness'  sake,  to  eat  various 
queer  messes  in  all  sorts  of  odd  corners  of  the  earth,  but  to 
me  "poi"  will  always  be  "poi" — in  a  class  by  itself.  It  is 
the  true  Hawaiian  dish  and  is  offered  to  guests  by  the  natives 
in  the  same  spirit  of  compliment  with  which  we  offer  to 
"break  bread"  with  our  friends.  It  is  the  custom  for  Amer- 
icans residing  in  Honolulu  to  introduce  visitors  to  this  dish, 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  the  native  viands  which  go  with  it,  in  entertainments 
which  are  called  "poi  dinners,"  and  we  were  treated  to  as 
many  of  these  as  our  time  would  permit.  "Poi"  bears  an 
unpleasant  outward  resemblance  to  cockroach  paste  and,  try 
as  I  would,  I  was  never  able  to  cultivate  a  taste  for  it.  But 
foreigners  do  learn  to  like  it,  for  I  found  Americans  in  Hon- 
olulu eating  it  with  the  greatest  relish  and  dipping  it  up 
with  their  fingers  in  true  Hawaiian  style. 

On  our  last  evening  in  Honolulu,  after  a  morning  of  sight- 
seeing, a  luncheon,  an  hour  in  the  buffeting  surf,  and  a  large 
tea-party,  we  were  given  a  particularly  elaborate  "poi  din- 
ner" where  we  all  sat  on  the  floor  and  at  which  all  the  guests 
appeared  in  native  costume  with  "leis"  around  their  necks 
and  in  their  hair.  The  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Mr. 
Mott  Smith,  sent  the  Hawaiian  Band,  whose  leader  came  out 
from  old  Emperor  William  to  King  Kalakaua,  and  they  sere- 
naded us  with  most  wonderful  Hawaiian  music,  interspersed, 
for  their  own  pride's  sake,  with  well  rendered  selections  from 
the  finest  operas.  The  girls  came  in  flaming  bright  "Mother- 
Hubbard"  dresses,  crowned  and  covered  with  "leis,"  to  dance 
for  us  the  curious  folk-lore  dances  of  the  old-time.  It  was 
a  delightful  whirl  of  music  and  lights  and  colour — added  to 
fish  and  poi  and  a  cramped  position — but  I  was  tired  enough 
not  to  be  sorry  when  the  time  came  for  the  singing  of  "Aloha 
Oe"  and  our  departure  for  the  ship  which  lay  out  in  the 
harbour  ready  to  up-anchor  at  daybreak  and  start  on  its  way 
to  Japan. 

On  the  evening  of  the  tenth  of  May  we  reached  the  estuary 
near  the  head  of  which  is  Yokohama  and  further  on  is  Tokio. 
For  at  least  two  hours  we  steamed  past  a  low-lying  shore  line 
before  we  came  in  sight  of  the  sweep  of  steep  cliff  to  the 
southward  which  forms  the  great  outer  harbour. 

There  was  just  one  thing  that  we  could  really  look  at; 
one  insistent,  dominant  point  in  the  landscape  which  caught 
us  and  held  us  fascinated, — Fujiyama.  I  had  seen  Fuji- 

52 


NIKKO.    AN  ANCIENT  CRYPTOMERIA  AVENUE  AND  A  GLIMPSE 
OF  THE  FAMOUS  TEMPLES 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

yama  on  screens  and  fans  and  porcelains  all  my  life,  but  I 
had  no  conception  of  it.  For  one  half  hour  this  "Queen  of 
Mountains" — rightly  called — rising  thirteen  thousand  feet 
out  of  sheer  sea-level,  perfect  in  form,  snow-capped,  majestic, 
blazed  for  us  against  the  western  sky.  Then  a  cloud  curtain 
fell, — and  the  sun  went  down. 

As  we  steamed  up  close  to  the  breakwater  in  the  grey  light 
of  late  evening  we  could  see  nothing  but  the  dark  outlines  of 
many  ships  and  a  long  row  of  substantial  looking  buildings, 
under  high  arc  lights,  stretching  along  a  wide,  water-front 
street  which  I  was  afterward  to  know  as  The  Bund. 

We  wanted  to  go  ashore,  but  it  was  not  possible.  We  had 
to  lie  outside  the  breakwater  and  wait  for  the  doctors  to  come 
aboard.  "Wait  for  the  doctors  to  come  aboard;"  how  fa- 
miliar that  proceeding  becomes  to  the  traveller  among  the 
ports  of  the  East,  and  especially,  of  Japan.  You  arrive  at 
Yokohama  and  are  examined  there;  you  go  just  around  the 
bend  of  the  coast  line  and  arrive  at  Kobe  and  you  are  exam- 
ined there;  you  go  on  through  the  Inland  Sea  to  Nagasaki 
and  again  you  are  examined.  Wherever  you  arrive  in  this 
land  of  much  caution  you  must  "wait  for  the  doctors  to  come 
aboard." 

But  our  doctors  didn't  keep  us  waiting  long.  About  eight 
o'clock  half  a  dozen  of  them,  important  little  men  with  much 
gold-lace,  came  smiling  up  the  gangway.  We  worried, 
rather,  about  the  plague  we  had  braved, — and  we  did  hope 
none  of  our  crew  would  develop  symptoms, — but,  having 
faith  in  the  Japanese  Vice-Consul  in  Honolulu,  we  hoped  for 
special  leniency.  We  were  not  disappointed.  They  exam- 
ined the  ship's  company  with  great  care,  but  our  examination 
was  a  mere  formality,  a  sort  of  apologetic  enumeration  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  and  after  giving  us  a  clean  bill  of  health  the 
doctors  bowed  themselves  most  courteously  away.  But  we 
had  a  narrow  escape.  Charlie's  nurse  developed  a  suspicious 
sore  throat  the  very  next  afternoon  and  gave  us  many  days 

53 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

of  anxiety  for  the  baby  and  the  other  children.  And,  as 
I  shall  make  plain  further  on,  our  anxiety  was  not  without 
cause. 

In  reading  over  my  own  and  my  husband's  letters,  written 
on  that  trip  to  various  members  of  the  family,  I  find  that 
Charlie  was  very  much  in  evidence  at  all  times.  I  suppose 
he  was  spoiled  because,  certainly,  everybody  took  a  hand  in 
his  misguidance,  but  the  spoiling  process  at  least  kept  him  in 
high  good  humour,  unless  it  happened  to  take  the  form  of 
secret  indulgence  in  prohibited  sweets;  then  I  had  to  meet  the 
consequences.  I  find  my  husband  writing  to  his  brother 
Charles :  "Charlie  continues  to  be  as  full  of  spirits  and  as 
determined  to  have  his  own  way  as  ever.  We  call  him 
'the  tornado';  he  creates  such  a  sensation  when  he  lands  in 
the  midst  of  the  children  on  board  the  ship.  He  is  very 
badly  in  need  of  discipline  and  I  long  for  the  time  to  come 
when  he  will  be  better  able  to  appreciate  it.  Maria  has  be- 
come quite  as  much  a  slave  to  him  as  Nellie  and  you  may  tell 
his  Aunt  Annie  that  I  am  still  the  only  hope  the  boy  has  of 
moral  training."  This  sounds  so  much  like  the  average 
father  that  I  thought  I  ought  to  quote  it. 

When  Bessie,  Charlie's  nurse,  was  taken  away  from  him 
and  quarantined  we  got  for  him  a  Japanese  "amah"  who 
filled  him  at  first  with  indignation,  not  unmixed  with  fear. 
But  she  was  so  patient,  and  followed  him  around  so  much 
like  a  faithful  watchdog,  that  he  grew  to  be  exceedingly  fond 
of  her  and  straightway  proceeded  to  exchange  his  small 
English  vocabulary  for,  to  him,  more  useful  Japanese  words. 

The  first  thing  to  claim  our  attention  in  Yokohama  Har- 
bour was  the  American  cruiser  Newark,  the  Admiral's  flag- 
ship of  the  Asiatic  fleet,  with  Admiral  Kempff  aboard.  As 
soon  as  we  came  inside  the  breakwater  she  fired  a  salute  of 
seventeen  guns,  and  we  wondered  what  it  was  all  about,  until 
suddenly  we  remembered  that  the  Commissioners  had  the 
rank  of  ministers  plenipotentiary  and  decided  that  it  was 

54 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

meant  for  us.  It  was  the  first  time  in  my  husband's  life  that 
he  had  ever  been  saluted.  In  his  later  career  he  reached  a 
point  where  he  would  have  been  almost  willing  to  assume  a 
disguise  in  order  to  escape  the  thunder  of  the  twenty-one 
guns  that  roared  at  him  whenever  he  approached  a  naval  ves- 
sel of  any  kind,  but  I  think  he  was  rather  elated  by  this  first 
tribute  to  his  official  standing. 

We  found  later  that  an  old  friend,  Captain  McCalla,  was 
in  command  of  the  Newark.  We  had  known  Captain 
McCalla  in  Washington  when  my  husband  was  Solicitor 
General.  He  had  been  court-martialed  and  suspended  from 
the  Navy  for  a  year  for  striking  an  unruly  and  insubordinate 
sailor  and  at  his  request  Mr.  Taft  read  the  record  of  the 
court-martial.  Mr.  Choate  had  been  his  counsel,  but  the 
case  was  given  a  great  deal  of  unpleasant  publicity.  He  dis- 
played such  bravery  at  the  Battle  of  Guantanamo,  in  Cuba, 
that  the  files  he  had  lost  were  restored  to  him.  He  also 
rendered  distinguished  service  in  the  Philippines,  taking  over 
the  surrender  of  one  of  Aguinaldo's  generals  at  Caygayan; 
and  later  on,  in  China,  he  was  in  the  van  of  the  allied  troops 
that  relieved  Peking  and  was  severely  wounded.  Being  a 
man  of  broad  intelligence  and  great  enterprise  he  appreciated 
the  importance  of  the  Philippine  Commission  and  lost  no 
time  in  extending  to  them  all  the  courtesies  at  his  command. 

Shortly  after  we  landed  and  got  ourselves  comfortably 
settled  at  the  Grand  Hotel,  an  ensign  from  the  Newark  came 
to  ask  when  the  Commission  would  receive  the  Admiral. 
The  hour  was  set  for  this  formality  and  when  it  had  been 
duly  disposed  of,  Captain  McCalla  called  on  us  unofficially, 
with  much  news  for  our  hungry  ears  from  the  big  world  that 
we  had  known  nothing  about  for  eleven  long  days.  That 
was  before  the  wireless  era  when  going  to  sea  was  really  going 
to  sea,  and  seldom  has  the  world  known  a  more  exciting  year 
than  1900.  Grim  talk  about  the  terrible  Boxer  insurrection 
was  on  every  tongue  and  Captain  McCalla  told  us  that  the 

55 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Newark  was  lying  in  readiness  to  proceed  to  China  at  an  in- 
stant's notice.  The  British  were  just  then  pressing  the  Boers 
northward  in  South  Africa,  and  our  own  troubles  in  the  Phil- 
ippines were  by  no  means  over.  We  had  nearly  seventy 
thousand  troops  in  the  field,  and  we  heard  of  decisive  en- 
gagements between  the  division  under  General  Young  and 
some  religious  fanatic  insurrectos  in  northern  Luzon.  We 
found  ourselves  feeling  very  much  in  touch  with  big 
events. 

The  Commission  went  out  to  the  Newark  to  return  the  Ad- 
miral's call  and  when  they  got  back  to  the  hotel  they  were 
full  of  valuable  information  and  advice  about  sightseeing 
in  Japan,  housekeeping  in  the  Orient  and  other  important 
things.  Among  other  bits  of  news  they  had  to  tell  their 
wives  was  that  we  would  all  probably  be  received  at  the 
Japanese  Court, — which  was  quite  exciting. 

My  experience  is  that  the  most  formal  branch  of  the  gov- 
ernment service  is  the  naval  branch.  The  state  department 
may  be  as  formal,  but  I  doubt  it.  The  ceremony  on  board 
naval  vessels  is  constant,  and  the  severity  of  the  penalties 
for  any  failure  to  follow  the  regulations  impresses  itself  upon 
every  naval  officer.  Therefore,  every  naval  officer  must 
have  diplomatic  training  and  must  be  alert  in  finding  out 
and  in  carrying  out  the  duties  of  polite  intercourse  which 
prevail  in  every  country. 

Captain  McCalla  regarded  the  Commissioners  as  pro-con- 
suls going  to  an  important  province,  quite  equal  to  the  fore- 
most diplomatic  representatives  of  the  United  States 
anywhere,  and  he  thought  it  was  incumbent  upon  them  to 
make  the  fact  of  their  presence  in  Japan  known  at  the  Im- 
perial Court  and  to  apply  for  an  audience  with  the  Emperor. 
It  hadn't  occurred  to  them.  Their  minds  were  so  full  of 
the  weighty  problems  confronting  them  at  Manila  that  they 
had  given  no  consideration  to  any  possible  intervening  for- 
malities, and,  anyhow,  Mr.  Taf t  said  he  thought  the  Emperor 

56 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

wouldn't  lose  much  sleep  if  he  did  miss  seeing  them.  But 
this  was  not  the  proper  attitude  at  all,  and  Captain  McCalla, 
expostulating  with  them  for  their  too  casual  conduct,  finally 
prevailed  upon  them  to  communicate  with  the  American 
Minister  in  Tokyo  and  ask  to  have  application  made  for 
the  audience.  They  were  immediately  informed  that  their 
arrival  had  been  expected  and  that  the  matter  had  already 
been  attended  to. 

The  Commission  had  only  a  week  in  Japan  and,  although 
their  purpose  in  stopping  had  been  to  coal  ship  and  get  some 
clothing  suitable  for  the  tropic  heat  they  were  going  into, 
they  naturally  were  anxious  to  see  something  of  the  country 
during  their  stay,  so  the  days  were  filled  with  expeditions 
around  Yokohama  and  Tokyo  and  to  points  of  interest 
nearby.  My  sister  Maria  and  I  did  not  accompany  them 
on  many  of  these  trips  because  we  were  planning  to  remain 
in  Japan  for  the  summer  and  wanted  to  view  its  attractions 
at  our  leisure. 

The  trip  to  Nikko  was  made  memorable  by  Mr.  Taft's 
most  triumphal  progress.  On  account  of  his  unusual  pro- 
portions he  had  already  been  an  object  of  tremendous  in- 
terest to  the  Japanese. 

Nikko  is  nearly  a  day's  ride  from  Tokyo,  up  in  the  hills 
to  the  north,  and  when  you  get  there  you  find  that 
the  railway  station  is  a  long  way  from  the  hotel  and  that 
much  of  the  distance  is  a  steep  incline.  The  only  kind  of 
conveyance  available  is  a  jinricksha,  and  when  my  husband 
climbed  into  one  of  these  little  perambulators  the  unfortu- 
nate coolie  to  whom  it  belonged  began  to  utter  strange 
sounds.  He  rolled  his  eyes  and  gesticulated  frantically  un- 
til he  prevailed  upon  a  second  man  to  help  him  in  propelling 
his  unaccustomed  burden.  But  even  then  his  excitement  did 
not  abate.  As  they  approached  the  first  rise  in  the  road 
some  of  the  villagers  along  the  way,  attracted,  no  doubt,  by 
the  coolie's  weird  cries,  came  out  to  stare  and,  as  usual,,  re,- 

57 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

mained  to  laugh.  The  little  'ricksha  man  began  chattering 
and  grimacing  at  all  of  them  and  kept  it  up  until  he  had  en- 
listed the  services  of  at  least  half  the  population  of  the  vil- 
lage to  help  him  in  attaining  the  crest  of  the  hill. 

Two  days  before  the  Hancock  was  to  start  on  her  way 
toward  Manila  the  great  event  of  our  visit  to  Japan  tran- 
spired. We  had  our  audience  with  the  Emperor  and  Em- 
press. 

The  first  thing  the  ladies  all  asked,  of  course,  was,  "What 
shall  we  wear?'7  It  was  a  most  important  question.  I  sup- 
posed we  should  have  to  wear  evening  gowns  and  was  con- 
gratulating myself  that  I  had  a  very  nice  new  one  that  would 
do  beautifully.  But  only  on  the  afternoon  before  the  day 
appointed,  it  was  decreed  that  we  should  appear  in  high- 
necked  frocks  with  trains.  That  was  more  difficult, — es- 
pecially the  trains.  I  didn't  own  an  afternoon  frock  that 
I  considered  good  enough.  I  was  going  to  the  tropics  and 
had  got  a  supply  of  thin  white  muslins  and  linens,  but  I 
had  nothing  that  would  do  for  a  cold  May  day  in  Japan. 
Mrs.  Wright,  Mrs.  Worcester  and  Mrs.  Moses  were  as 
greatly  concerned  as  I,  but  we  finally  managed.  I  solved 
the  problem  by  having  a  Chinese  dressmaker  in  Yokohama 
make  me,  overnight,  a  lace  guimpe  which  I  wore  with  my 
perfectly  acceptable  evening  gown. 

Judge  Ide  had  been  particularly  interested  in  the  audience 
and  in  the  fact  that  the  ladies  would  also  be  received  and  he 
was  very  much  chagrined  when  he  found  that  "the  ladies" 
meant  only  the  wives  of  the  Commissioners  and  that  he  could 
not  take  with  him  his  two  beautiful  daughters.  He  quite 
lost  interest  in  the  whole  proceeding,  and  we  didn't  blame 
him  in  the  least. 

The  Palace  in  Tokyo  is  not  a  "Forbidden  City"  literally, 
as  the  old  palace  in  Peking  used  to  be,  but  it  looks  from  the 
outside  just  as  "forbidden,"  or  more  so.  It  is  surrounded 
by  a  wide,  deep  moat  which  is  crossed  at  intervals  by  curved 

58 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  gracefully  balustraded  bridges.  On  the  other  side  of 
the  moat  is  a  high  stone  wall.  There  is  nothing  of  the  pal- 
ace to  be  seen  except  a  few  low,  tiled  roofs  which  peep  out 
from  the  midst  of  many  trees.  The  Imperial  gardens  are 
vastly  more  impressive  than  the  palaces, — there  are  several 
within  the  walled  enclosure, — and  I  would  have  wanted  to 
linger  and  really  look  at  things  if  I  had  not  been  so  keenly 
interested  in  the  experience  which  awaited  us.  Our  carriage 
hurried  on  over  the  beautiful  drives,  through  the  most  en- 
trancing little  artificial  landscapes,  past  lakes  full  of  little 
rock  islands  on  which  were  perched  tiny  pavilions  with  up- 
tilted  roofs  and  the  most  beautiful  polished  wood  and  snow- 
white  paper  windows.  It  was  all  most  fascinating  and  much 
too  wonderful  to  be  merely  glanced  at,  but  it  was  only 
a  few  moments  before  we  approached  a  low,  grey  building 
and  drew  up  before  the  door.  It  didn't  look  at  all  like  a 
palace,  but  it  seemed  that  we  had  arrived. 

We  were  ushered  into  a  large  reception  room  which  was 
neither  Japanese  nor  European,  but  a  curious  mixture  of 
both.  The  walls  were  of  gold  leaf  and  were  decorated 
with  beautiful  Japanese  paintings  in  exquisitely  soft  colour- 
ings, but  the  furniture  was  mostly  of  the  heavy  foreign  type. 
It  was  unexpected  to  say  the  least  and  I  thought  what  a  pity 
it  was.  that  the  Japanese  had  not  met  the  European  invasion 
in  their  own  original  and  picturesquely  beautiful  style,  in- 
stead of  trying  to  conform  to  western  customs,  or  rather,  to 
engraft  western  customs  upon  their  own  unique  orientalism. 
But  so  it  is.  They  either  like  our  ugly  heaviness,  or  think 
they  confer  a  polite  compliment  on  us  by  adopting  it. 

We  were  not  kept  waiting  long.  We  were  separated  from 
the  men  of  our  party  and  were  led  into  another  room,  much 
like  the  first,  where  the  Empress  awaited  us  attended  by 
three  or  four  ladies  of  her  court.  We  curtseyed  very  low, 
not  without  difficulty  on  the  part  of  most  of  us  in  spite  of 
much  practice,  and  after  receiving  a  gracious  smile  and  bow 

59 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

from  Her  Majesty,  we  were  able  to  stand  erect  and  observe 
her  at  our  leisure.  Both  she  and  her  ladies-in-waiting  were 
dressed  in  European  costume  which  made  them  look  much 
smaller  than  they  would  have  looked  in  their  own  beautiful 
kimonos.  Her  Majesty's  face  was  sweet  and  almost  timid 
looking,  and  her  voice  was  peculiarly  gentle.  Our  conver- 
sation, carried  on  through  an  interpreter,  was  commonplace 
in  the  extreme,  but  her  manner  was  pleasant  and  cordial. 
I  was  tremendously  interested  because  I  had  been  reading 
Japanese  history  and  was  duly  impressed  with  the  hoary  an- 
tiquity of  this  court  of  the  Son  of  Heaven.  The  Empress 
addressed  a  few  remarks  to  each  of  us,  after  which  we  curt- 
seyed again  and  retired.  That  was  all. 

Our  husbands  were  received  in  a  similar  manner  by  the 
Emperor,  though  His  Majesty  granted  a  separate  interview 
to  each  of  them.  Mr.  Taft  entered  first  with  the  Minister 
of  the  Household  in  charge  of  the  ceremony.  He  bowed 
when  he  entered  the  door,  bowed  again  half  way  up  the  long 
room,  and  yet  again  when  he  arrived  before  the  Emperor. 
The  others,  also  bowing,  followed  close  behind  but  remained 
just  outside  of  the  audience  chamber  while  my  husband's 
audience  was  in  progress.  Mr.  Nagasaki,  who  acted  as  in- 
terpreter, said  that  His  Majesty  was  very  much  pleased  to 
see  the  Commission  in  Japan.  Mr.  Taft  expressed  his  ap- 
preciation of  the  audience.  The  Emperor  asked  if  he  had 
ever  been  in  Japan  before.  He  said  he  had  not.  The  Em- 
peror asked  when  he  was  going  to  leave  Japan.  He  replied, 
"In  two  days,  Your  Majesty."  After  which  this,  his  first 
audience  with  the  Mikado,  was  at  an  end  and  he  left  the 
chamber  while  the  rest  of  the  Commissioners,  each  in  his 
turn,  went  through  the  same  ceremony. 

After  our  husbands  had  been  received  by  the  Empress  also, 
they  rejoined  us  and  we  were  conducted  through  some  other 
rooms  in  the  palace  which  interested  us  greatly.  They  all 
showed  a  curious  mingling  of  Japanese  and  European  ob- 

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jects  of  art  and  nobody  could  see  them  without  deciding  that, 
in  that  particular  setting  at  least,  the  Japanese  objects  were 
far  the  more  beautiful. 

The  Japanese  Court  is  much  inclined  to  imitate  things 
European  and  the  results  are  sometimes  astonishing.  Years 
later,  when  my  husband  was  in  Japan  without  me,  the  Em- 
press presented  him  with  a  tapestry  for  me  which  had  been 
copied  from  a  Gobelin  piece.  It  represented  the  meeting 
of  Columbus  and  Isabella,  and,  it  shows  the  most  exquisite 
workmanship,  but  the  faces  have  a  curiously  Oriental  cast. 

There  is  a  story  in  connection  with  this  tapestry  which  I 
think  I  must  tell.  My  husband  was  Secretary  of  War  when 
it  was  presented  to  me;  and  I  say  me  with  emphasis,  because 
thereby  hangs  the  story.  He  brought  it  home  and  displayed 
it  with  great  pride  and  satisfaction,  but  it  was  so  enormous 
and,  from  my  standpoint,  so  useless,  that  I  rather  protested 
and  wondered  why,  as  long  as  he  was  getting  such  a  gorgeous 
present  he  couldn't  have  managed  in  some  way  to  make  its 
size  correspond  with  my  circumstances. 

"Oh,  well,"  said  he,  "never  mind.  I'm  going  to  present 
it  to  the  Smithsonian  Institute  anyway,  because  you  know, 
my  dear,  it  is  against  the  Constitution  for  an  official  in  the 
United  States  government  to  accept  any  kind  of  favours  from 
foreign  courts." 

This  was  not  the  first  time  in  my  life  that  I  had  met  the 
Constitution  face  to  face,  but  theretofore  I  had  been  able  to 
accept  its  decrees  with  what  I  had  hoped  was  patriotic  resig- 
nation. But  now  that  tapestry  suddenly  became  to  me  a 
most  desirable  thing.  It  had  been  sent  to  me  by  the  Empress 
of  Japan  and  I  wanted  to  enjoy  the  mere  possession  of  it, — 
at  least  for  awhile.  So,  as  my  husband  would  say,  I  took 
the  question  up  with  him.  I  tried  to  convince  him  that  I 
was  not  an  official  of  the  United  States  government  and  that 
he,  as  an  official,  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  my  present 
from  the  Empress  of  Japan.  He  stood  firmly  by  the  Con* 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

stitution,  as  usual,  and  eventually  I  had  to  submit  the  ques- 
tion for  arbitration  to  President  Roosevelt,  who  agreed  with 
me  that  I  was  a  private  citizen  and  had  a  perfect  right  to 
accept  the  gift.  I  afterward  hung  it  in  one  of  the  big  wall 
spaces  in  the  state  dining-room  of  the  White  House  and  had 
the  pleasure  of  watching  many  a  guest  vainly  endeavouring 
to  locate  its  origin  and  figure  out  its  meaning. 

We  concluded  our  first  audience  at  the  court  of  Japan 
by  signing  our  names  in  the  Imperial  album,  after  which  we 
went  to  the  American  Legation  to  a  beautiful  luncheon  which 
the  Minister  had  arranged  in  our  honour.  Our  Minister  in 
Tokyo  then — it  was  some  years  before  the  Legation  was 
raised  to  an  Embassy — was  Mr.  Buck  of  Georgia,  a  most 
affable  and  agreeable  gentleman.  He  had  invited  a  number 
of  his  diplomatic  collegues  to  meet  us  and,  among  others,  we 
met  for  the  first  time  Baron  and  Baroness  Rosen,  of  the  Rus- 
sian Legation,  who  were  afterward  with  us  in  Washington. 

I  sat  on  the  right  of  the  Minister  and  next  to  Baron  Sano- 
miya,  the  Court  Chamberlain,  who  had  conducted  our  audi- 
ence. I  was  greatly  interested  in  Baron  Sanomiya's  wife. 
She  was  an  Englishwoman  at  least  twice  his  size. 

At  Mr.  Taft's  request  the  Minister  had  invited  an  old 
classmate  of  his,  Baron  Tajiri  Inajiro.  At  Yale  he  was 
known  as  Tajiri,  and  the  first  two  letters  of  both  their 
names  being  "Ta"  he  and  my  husband  had  been  brought 
together  in  the  classroom,  seated  alphabetically,  and  had 
enjoyed  a  pleasant  association.  So  Mr.  Taft  looked  for- 
ward with  great  pleasure  to  renewing  the  acquaintance  in 
Japan.  Baron  Tajiri,  like  most  Japanese,  was  a  little  man, 
and  his  teeth  were  so  formed  that  he  was  never  able  to 
master  the  pronunciation  of  English  in  such  a  way  as  to 
enable  one  to  understand  him  easily.  But  he  seems  to  have 
acquired  at  Yale  a  sound  knowledge  of  business  and 
finance  since  he  became  Assistant  Minister  of  Finance  un- 
der Yamagata  and  had  taken  an  active  part  in  the  change 

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of  the  Japanese  currency  from-  the  silver  to  the  gold 
standard,  which  was  a  great  step  in  Japan's  progress  toward 
a  place  among  the  world's  powers.  He  had  been  made  a 
life  peer  and  sat  in  the  Upper  House.  At  the  luncheon  he 
wore  a  frock  coat  which  Mr.  Taft  felt  confident  he  recog- 
nised as  an  old  college  friend  of  the  'seventies.  In  those 
days  the  Japanese  wore  their  "foreign  clothes"  only  on  "for- 
eign occasions"  or  at  court.  They  kept  them  carefully 
folded  up  and  put  away,  and  they  had  not  yet  come  to  rec- 
ognise the  desirability  of  pressing  them  when  they  took  them 
out  for  use.  Also  a  silk  hat  once  was  a  silk  hat  always; 
vintages  didn't  trouble  them,  and  they  didn't  mind  in  the 
least  which  way  the  nap  was  brushed. 

Baron  Tajiri  wanted  to  be  appointed  Minister  of  Fi- 
nance when  Yamagata  retired,  but  he  was  put,  instead,  at 
the  head  of  the  Board  of  Audits,  a  life  position.  Mar- 
chioness, now  Princess  Oyama,  wife  of  the  Field  Marshal, 
told  my  husband  this  on  the  occasion  of  his  second  visit  to 
Japan,  and  said  that  the  disappointment  had  made  Tajiri 
very  much  of  a  recluse.  In  any  case,  Mr.  Taft  has  never 
seen  him  again,  although  he  has  tried  to  seek  him  out  and 
has  made  inquiry  about  him  every  time  he  has  been  in 
Japan. 

We  were  very  much  interested  in  our  Legation  at  Tokyo. 
It  was  the  first  one  we  had  ever  seen  that  the  American  gov- 
ernment owned.  The  house  was  not  what  it  ought  to  have 
been,  but  it  was  surrounded  by  spacious  and  beautifully  kept 
grounds  and  was  so  much  better  than  the  nothing  that  we 
have  in  other  countries  that  we  liked  to  dwell  upon  it  as  an 
honourable  exception  to  the  disgraceful  and  miserly  policy 
pursued  by  Congress  in  dealing  with  our  representatives  to 
foreign  capitals. 

Mrs.  Wright,  with  her  daughter  Katrina,  had  decided  to 
remain  with  us  in  Yokohama  for  the  summer,  so  we  took  a 
cottage  together  on  The  Bluff,  a  high  foreign  residence  sec- 

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tion  of  tlie  city,  and  prepared  to  make  ourselves  most  com- 
fortable. 

Two  days  later  the  Commissioners  and  the  rest  of  the 
party  went  aboard  the  Hancock  and  we  waved  them  good- 
bye from  a  harbour  launch  as  they  steamed  away  toward 
Manila. 


64 


CHAPTER  IV 

IN    JAPAN 

To  be  quarantined  in  a  house  too  small  for  the  number  of 
its  occupants,  behind  closed  doors,  each  one  of  which  bears 
aloft  a  sinister  yellow  placard  across  which  is  printed  in 
large,  black  letters:  "Diphtheria,"  is  no  way  to  begin  a 
visit  to  a  strange  and  interesting  country. 

No  sooner  had  Bessie,  Charlie's  nurse,  been  released  from 
quarantine  by  the  doctors  in  Yokohama  than  our  older  boy, 
Robert,  developed  suspicious  symptoms  which,  upon  diagno- 
sis, were  pronounced  to  be  diphtheritic.  The  sore  throat 
began  before  Mr.  Taft  left  for  Manila,  and  he  was  loathe  to 
go,  but  as  the  new  serum  treatment  for  diphtheria  had  robbed 
the  disease  of  much  of  its  terror,  and  as  we  were  in  the  hands 
of  an  excellent  American  physician,  Dr.  Eldridge,  I  felt  con- 
fident there  was  no  cause  for  serious  apprehension. 

We  sent  Helen  and  the  baby  to  be  taken  care  of  at  the 
Grand  Hotel,  while  Mrs.  Wright,  Maria  and  I  resigned  our- 
selves to  a  long  and  tedious  period  of  isolation.  Robert's 
diphtheria  did  not  develop  to  a  dangerous  stage,  but  the  sore 
throat  persisted  and  it  was  three  weeks  before  we  were  re- 
leased upon  a  none-too-welcoming  world.  Our  long  quar- 
antine had  marked  us  as  objects  to  be  avoided — in  a  social 
sense — even  after  the  doctors  had  pronounced  us  safe. 

Mrs.  Wright  and  my  sister  and  I  spent  that  entire  three 
weeks  only  wishing  that  we  were  in  our  own  land  where 
some  friendly  voice  might  at  least  shout  an  inquiry  about  us 
from  a  distance,  and  not  in  this  far-away  place  where  only 
strange  and  very  foreign  sounds  came  floating  in  to  us  from 
curious  and  crowded  streets  whose  every  nook  and  corner 
we  were  aching  to  explore. 

Our  house  was  charming.  All  the  "foreign"  houses  in 
Japan  seem  to  me  to  be  charming.  The  solidity  of  Occi- 

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dental  construction,  with  the  light  touch  of  Japanese  interior 
decoration,  make  a  fascinating  combination,  especially  in 
that  environment.  The  Japanese  landscape  is — well,  pe- 
culiarly Japanese,  and  the  gardens,  however  "foreign"  they 
may  be,  have  an  air  quite  unique  and  unmistakably  oriental. 

The  Foreign  Settlement  in  Yokohama  consists  of  a  broad 
business  section,  solidly  built,  on  the  low  lands  fronting  the 
harbour,  and  The  Bluff.  The  Bluff  is  a  garden  of  beautiful 
homes.  At  one  end  it  rises  high  above  the  bay  and  com- 
mands a  wide  view  of  harbour,  town  and  Pacific  Ocean,  while 
the  other  end  runs  inland  to  meet  the  higher  hills  beyond 
and  forms  a  deep  valley  in  which  has  been  built  up  a  teem- 
ing native  quarter  full  of  colour,  of  picturesque  outline  and 
of  never-ending  oriental  clamour.  Around  this  village  are 
terraced,  bright-green  rice  paddies  and  high  hills  covered 
with  dark,  Japanese  pines  which  grow  at  curious  angles. 

Our  house,  a  spreading  bungalow  in  a  large  and  well- 
kept  garden,  was  on  the  inland  side  and  overlooked  this 
valley.  From  a  Buddhist  temple  on  the  opposite  hill,  a 
quaint  structure  with  uptilted  roof  and  great  stone  torii 
gateway,  came  the  ceaseless  drone  of  a  priest  repeating  over 
and  over  an  endless  invocation  to  the  constant,  measured 
turn-turn  accompaniment  of  little  wooden  drums,  while  from 
the  narrow  streets  below  rose  the  strange  cries  of  itinerant 
food  venders.  Throughout  the  whole  long  evening  sounded 
the  long  wail  of  the  blind  masseurs  who,  with  their  thump- 
ing bamboo  sticks,  tramp  from  door  to  door  seeking  patron- 
age. At  intervals  the  single  low  tong  of  a  great  temple  bell 
set  the  hills  to  vibrating. 

We  rented  the  house  from  an  Englishman  who  was  "going 
home"  on  vacation,  and  with  it  we  rented  a  complete  menage, 
including  a  most  efficient  little  Japanese  woman  named 
Matsu  who  served  us  both  as  waitress  and  housekeeper  and 
answered  to  the  call  of  "Amah !" — meaning  either  nurse  or 

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maid.  Besides  the  Amah,  there  was  only  a  cook,  an  ex- 
cellent one,  but  the  two  contrived  to  run  the  house  with  a 
smoothness  and  an  economy  which  I  have  never  seen 
equalled.  They  were  so  economical,  in  fact,  that  we  had  dif- 
ficulty in  getting  them  to  serve  to  us  enough  of  their  well- 
prepared  food.  There  were  six  of  us  in  family,  not  includ- 
ing Charlie,  or  Baby  San  as  he  was  called,  and  at  each  meal 
Matsu  would  bring  in  just  six  portions  of  whatever  there 
was,  six  chops,  six  croquettes,  six  little  fishes,  always  six — 
no  more.  We  resorted  to  strategy  sometimes  and  an- 
nounced, well  in  advance,  that  there  would  be  guests. 

"How  many,  O  Ku  San4?"  says  Matsu  cautiously. 

"Well,  maybe  two,"  says  we. 

Whereupon  we  would  get  eight  little  chops,  or  eight  little 
croquettes,  or  whatever  it  might  be.  But  we  couldn't  play 
this  game  very  often  because  we  were  afraid  that  if  too 
many  guests  failed  to  materialise  the  time  would  come  when 
we  really  would  be  giving  a  party  and  be  forced  to  act  out 
the  "Wolf !  Wolf !"  story  to  our  own  very  great  embarrass- 
ment. I'm  glad  to  say  this  never  occurred;  Matsu  always 
obeyed  orders ;  but  when  an  unexpected  guest  dropped  in  we 
had  to  exercise  the  principle  of  "family  hold  back"  in  real 
earnest. 

However,  while  Matsu  was  in  command  none  of  us  had 
any  cause  for  complaint.  She  had  plenty  of  native  shrewd- 
ness and  didn't  neglect  her  own  interests  to  any  appreciable 
extent,  but  she  displayed  none  of  the  traditional  oriental 
duplicity  which  we  had  been  warned  to  look  out  for  in  all 
Japanese  servants.  She  relieved  us  of  all  the  responsi- 
bilities of  housekeeping  and  left  us  free  to  wander  around 
among  the  fascinating  shops  and  to  go  off  on  long  sight- 
seeing expeditions  at  our  pleasure. 

While  we  were  still  in  the  midst  of  the  miseries  of  quar- 
antine I  got  my  first  letter  from  my  husband,  and  as  he  had 

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sailed  away  into  what  to  me  then  was  a  very  far  distant  and 
somewhat  unreal  world,  I  was  exceedingly  glad  to  hear  from 
him. 

The  Hancock  had  stopped  at  Kobe  and  had  then  gone  on 
to  Nagasaki  where  it  had  to  lie  for  two  days  taking  on  coal. 
The  Commissioners  seem  to  have  begun  by  that  time  to  chafe 
at  delays  and  to  long  for  their  settled,  definite  employment. 
But  they  had  to  go  to  Hongkong  on  some  business  matters 
and  it  was  from  Hongkong  that  my  first  long  letter  came. 
They  were  received  by  the  British  authorities  with  the  usual 
formality;  pompous  calls  to  be  returned  as  pompously;  din- 
ners, luncheons,  club  privileges,  launch  parties  and  much  en- 
tertaining gossip;  but  they  were  interested,  principally,  in 
meeting  for  the  first  time  the  genus  Filipino  irreconcilable. 

The  Filipinos,  after  three  centuries  of  Christian  educa- 
tion, which  had  taken  the  form  of  religious  instruction  only, 
had,  with  reason,  risen  in  revolt  against  the  Spanish  system 
of  friar  domination  and  had  demanded  some  measure  of 
freedom  and  a  voice  in  the  control  of  their  own  affairs. 
This  is  a  long  and  complicated  story  which  can  only  be 
touched  upon  here. 

They  were  engaged  in  a  hopeless  struggle  with  Spanish 
authority  when  the  Spanish-American  War,  unexpected,  un- 
dreamed of,  suddenly  turned  the  tables  and  placed  them  in 
an  entirely  new  situation.  They  saw  Spain  defeated  and 
turned  from  the  islands  she  had  held  since  Magellan's  first 
voyage,  while  another  flag  quickly  rose  above  their  ancient 
forts  and  strongholds.  Then  it  was  that  the  handful  of  am- 
bitious "illustrados,"  or  well-to-do  and  educated  ones,  began 
freely  to  preach  independence  and  were  encouraged  by  not  a 
few  Americans,  including  some  in  official  relation  to  the  sit- 
uation, who,  in  complete  ignorance  of  real  conditions, 
approved  the  so-called  aspiration  and  gave  hope  of  its  early 
fulfilment. 

The  idea  of  these  Americans  was  that  our  forefathers  had 

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fought  for  independence  and  that  it  was  against  our  most 
cherished  principles  to  hold  any  people  against  their  will. 
But  they  didn't  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  the 
Filipinos  were  Malays,  not  ten  per  cent,  of  them  with  even 
a  primary  education,  used  only  to  a  theocratic  and  absolute 
government  and  without  any  experience  in  the  rule  of  the 
people.  Nor  did  they  consider  that  our  forefathers  had,  for 
a  century  and  a  half  before  the  revolution,  been  carrying  on 
what  was  really  self-government  and  were  better  fitted  by 
training  and  tradition  to  make  self-government  work  than 
any  people  in  the  world.  They  indulged  in  sentiment  to 
the  exclusion  of  thought;  and  so  the  situation  was  created. 

The  idea  of  complete  independence  was  never  shouted 
from  the  housetops  in  Spanish  times,  but  the  new  flag  repre- 
sented free  speech,  a  free  press,  and  such  freedom  generally 
as  the  Filipinos  had  never  dreamed  of  in  their  wildest  aspira- 
tions and  the  "illustrados"  and  the  men  who  had  tasted 
power  in  the  insurrection  against  Spain  were  not  slow  to  take 
advantage  of  it.  An  alluring  conception  of  independence, 
freedom  from  all  restraint  and  the  enjoyment  of  luxurious 
ease,  really,  was  sent  abroad  among  the  densely  ignorant 
masses  by  the  handful  who  had  education,  with  the  result 
that  by  the  time  the  American  government  was  free  really  to 
face  the  issue,  the  demand  for  our  immediate  withdrawal 
was  unanimous,  or  nearly  so. 

But  it  couldn't  be  done.  Aguinaldo  tried  his  hand  at  a 
government  for  six  months  and  failed  miserably.  Corrup- 
tion was  rife.  Chaos  reigned;  the  country  was  impover- 
ished and  absolutely  unprotected;  and  it  didn't  take  the 
Americans  long  to  recognise  the  fact  that  "independence" 
meant  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  merciless  exploitation 
of  the  many  by  the  few  and  the  establishment  of  worse  con- 
ditions than  any  the  people  had  ever  known. 

So  we  stayed;  there  was  nothing  else  to  do;  and  the  insur- 
rection against  constituted  authority  was  taken  up  where  it 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

left  off  when  Admiral  Dewey  steamed  up  Manila  Bay.  It 
was  hopeless  from  the  start,  and  one  after  another  of  the 
leading  insurrectos^  as  the  months  went  by,  abandoned  the 
struggle  in  favour  of  prosperous  peace  and  came  in  to  Manila 
to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States.  But  as 
pacification  progressed  a  few  of  the  leaders  declared  them- 
selves to  be  "irreconcilable"  and  either  took  to  the  hills  with 
marauding  bands  of  ladrones,  or  went  over  to  Hongkong 
and  joined  the  little  Filipino  colony  there.  This  colony  in 
Hongkong — which  still  exists,  by  the  way — was  known  as 
the  "junta"  and  its  business  in  life  was  to  hatch  schemes  for 
murderous  uprisings,  smuggle  arms  and  incendiary  literature 
into  the  islands,  raise  money  for  carrying  on  hostilities  and 
make  itself  useful  generally. 

The  methods  employed  by  these  "irreconcilables"  were 
peculiarly  their  own.  They  consisted,  mainly,  of  coercion 
and  threats  of  assassination  among  Filipino  people  who  were 
staying  at  home  and  endeavouring  to  keep  out  of  trouble. 
Then,  too,  they  were  reported  to  have  made  a  great  deal  of 
money  by  compelling  Filipino  hemp  and  tobacco  planters  to 
sell  to  them  these  valuable  products  at  prices  fixed  by  them- 
selves, and  later  disposing  of  them  in  Hongkong  at  the  reg- 
ular market  price  which  gave  them  a  tremendous  margin  of 
profit. 

These  were  the  conditions — merely  sketched — which  ex- 
isted in  the  Philippine  Islands  when  the  second  Commission 
was  sent  out,  and  the  first  Filpinos  Mr.  Taft  ever  met,  he 
met  in  Hongkong.  They  were  not  members  of  the  "junta" 
but  were  high-class,  wealthy,  non-combatant  refugees  named 
Cortez,  who  lived  under  a  threat  of  assassination,  who  had 
had  all  their  property  confiscated  because  of  their  sympathy 
with  the  insurrection  against  Spain,  had  secured  restitution 
through  the  government  at  Washington,  and  who  came  now 
to  beg  the  Commission  for  protection  against  their  own 

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people  and  for  the  speedy  establishment  of  peaceful  Amer- 
ican rule  in  the  islands. 

Then  came  Artacho.  Artacho  had  been  Aguinaldo's  rival 
in  the  insurrection  against  Spain  and  he  very  much  resented 
the  selection,  by  the  Americans  in  command,  of  Aguinaldo 
as  the  leader  of  the  Filipino  forces  when  Dewey  went  into 
Manila.  He  was  sufficiently  annoyed  to  leave  the  country 
and  take  refuge  in  Hongkong.  He  professed  entire  igno- 
rance of  the  activities  of  the  "junta"  and  unqualified  loyalty 
to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  but,  as  he  had  with 
him  a  "secretary"  who  very  carefully  listened  to  all  he  had 
to  say,  and  as  he  seemed  to  be  very  cautious  in  all  his  expres- 
sions, Mr.  Taf  t  decided  that  he  was  being  watched  and  was, 
if  not  actively  connected  with  the  "junta,"  at  least  "on  the 
fence"  and  in  his  call  only  "casting  an  anchor  to  windward" 
in  case  the  Americans  should  succeed  in  pacifying  the  Islands 
and  establishing  a  government  there  with  which  it  would  be 
very  nice  indeed  to  be  connected.  It  must  have  been  a  very 
diplomatic,  a  very  soft-spoken  and  a  most  amusing  meeting. 

Among  other  things  the  Commission  had  to  do  in  Hong- 
kong was  to  secure  Chinese  servants.  They  had  been  told 
that  this  was  absolutely  necessary  because  the  unsettled  state 
of  affairs  in  Manila  made  Filipino  servants  entirely  unde- 
pendable. 

Captain  McCalla,  of  the  Newark,  had  given  to  my  hus- 
band in  Yokohama,  a  letter  to  one  L.  Charles,  a  Chinese  who 
ran  a  sort  of  employment  agency  in  Hongkong,  but  when  L. 
Charles  came  out  to  the  Hancock,  in  response  to  a  message 
from  Mr.  Taft,  he  brought  with  him  the  surprising  news 
that  the  servants  had  already  arrived  from  Shanghai  and 
had  been  waiting  for  several  days.  Mr.  Taft  was  greatly 
astonished,  as  he  was  unconscious  of  having  made  any  ar- 
rangements at  all,  but  L.  Charles  smilingly  explained  to  him 
that  Admiral  Dewey  had  attended  to  it.  Then  Mr.  Taft 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

remembered  that,  sure  enough,  Admiral  Dewey  had,  several 
months  before  in  Washington,  offered  to  secure  servants 
through  his  own  Chinaman,  Ah  Man,  but  he,  himself,  had 
forgotten  all  about  it. 

However,  he  sent  for  the  men  and  when  they  came  aboard 
one  of  them  proudly  produced  a  note  from  the  flag  officer 
of  the  Brooklyn,  enclosing  a  note  to  Ah  Sing,  the  steward  of 
the  Brooklyn^  from  Ah  Man,  Admiral  Dewey's  servant.  It 
read: 

My  dear  Ah  Sing: 

It  is  a  new  Governor  General  coming  up  to  Manila  City.  His 
name  is  Mr.  Wm.  H.  Taft  and  he  is  going  to  sail  from  here  first  of 
April.  The  Admiral  asked  me  to  write  to  you  and  ask  if  you  please 
find  him  some  good  Chinese  servants  for  Mr.  Taft.  He  like  to 
have  a  very  good  cook  just  like  myself  the  Admiral  said  and  two 
men  to  wait  on  table  a  butler  and  second  man  just  like  you.  Now 
would  you  be  so  kind  as  to  try  to  find  some  very  nice  people  that 
will  take  good  care  and  will  understand  their  business.  The  Ad- 
miral will  be  very  much  oblige  to  you  I  am 

Your  truly  friend, 

AH  MAN. 

This  is  an  example  of  what  is  known  in  the  East  as  "flen- 
pidgin,"  which  may  be  literally  translated  as  "friend-work." 
It  is  a  Chinese  system,  but  it  has  been  adopted  by  the  repre- 
sentatives of  every  country  in  the  world  to  be  met  out  there 
and  it  is  by  no  means  the  least  of  the  elements  which  enter 
into  the  charm  of  the  Orient. 

One  of  the  objects  for  stopping  in  Japan  was  to  enable 
the  Commissioners  to  get  white  duck  and  linen  clothes  for 
the  tropics  and  Mr.  Taft  had  the  worst  of  luck  in  getting 
anything  to  fit  him.  In  the  beginning  we  had  some  rather 
heated  discussions  as  to  the  style  of  dress  that  he  should 
adopt.  He  had  been  assured  that  the  most  comfortably 
dressed  men  were  those  who  wore  "straight  button  ups"  as 
they  are  called.  These  are  coats  which  have  a  high,  round 

72 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

collar  and  button  straight  down  from  the  chin — plain  mil- 
itary jackets,  in  fact.  They  are  worn  without  shirts,  col- 
lars, ties  or  anything  except  underwear  and  trousers  and  are, 
no  doubt,  very  nice  for  the  tropic  heat.  But  I  did  not  con- 
sider that  such  a  severe  style  would  bring  out  the  lines  of  my 
husband's  figure  to  the  best  advantage,  so  I  prevailed  upon 
him  to  have  all  his  clothes  made  with  sack  coats  which  should 
be  worn  with  the  usual  accessories.  It  was  a  sad  experi- 
ence in  Yokohama,  but  he  left  for  Hongkong  full  of  hope, 
having  been  told  that  the  tailors  there  were  much  better. 
He  wrote  in  utter  disgust.  The  tailors  were  not  good; 
he  had  been  to  every  shop  in  town  looking  for  wearing 
apparel  of  all  kinds  and  could  find  nothing  large  enough  for 
him.  He  said  he  had  imagined  that  Englishmen  were,  as  a 
rule,  large  enough  to  demand  men's  sizes, — but  evidently 
not.  He  had  to  have  everything,  shoes,  stockings,  under- 
wear, shirts,  collars  and  hats  made  to  order — and  then  they 
didn't  fit. 

My  husband's  letter,  full  of  strange  names,  of  assassina- 
tion, of  smuggled  arms,  of  dark  intrigue  and  unrest  gen- 
erally, left  a  vague  impression  in  my  mind  that  he  was  going 
into  a  country  where  he  would  be  subjected  to  murderous 
attacks  every  few  minutes.  Then  I  reflected  that  he 
was  not  quite  alone;  that  General  MacArthur  and  about 
seventy  thousand  American  troops  were  down  there  too,  and 
that  they  could  probably  be  depended  upon  to  do  everything 
in  their  power  to  protect  him. 

Our  life  in  Yokohama  was  very  placid.  It  was  some  time 
after  our  yellow  placards  were  removed  before  our  neigh- 
bours began  to  call  on  us,  and  we  didn't  blame  them.  No 
doubt  they  felt  that  it  would  be  foolish  to  risk  getting  diph- 
theria just  for  the  sake  of  being  formally  polite.  We  were 
delightfully  entertained,  both  before  and  after  the  Commis- 
sion sailed,  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  T.  Williams  Mclvor,  who  are 
among  the  old  American  residents  of  Yokohama.  Mr. 

73 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Mclvor  had  been  American  Consul  General,  but  when  we 
met  him  he  was  engaged  in  a  private  law  practice,  repre- 
senting the  American  Tobacco  Company  and  other  large 
foreign  concerns.  As  Consul  General  he  had  taken  care  of 
the  Chinese  during  the  Japan-China  War  and  had  sent  about 
eight  thousand  of  them  out  of  the  country.  He  was  now 
representing  the  foreign  business  community  in  its  dispute 
with  the  Japanese  government  as  to  whether  or  not  the  prop- 
erty known  as  the  Foreign  Concession,  or  The  Settlement, 
was  taxable.  This  area  had  been  granted  by  the  Japanese 
government  on  perpetual  lease  at  the  time  the  first  treaties 
with  Japan  were  made,  and  the  holding  of  it  by  foreigners 
was  conditioned  on  the  payment  of  a  ground  rent  to  the  gov- 
ernment which,  it  was  provided,  should  never  be  increased 
beyond  a  certain  amount.  But  now  Japan  was  greatly  in 
need  of  money,  was  taxing  its  own  people  in  every  way  pos- 
sible, and  eventually  decided  to  levy  a  tax  on  the  houses  and 
improvements  upon  this  land,  on  the  theory  that  improve- 
ments on  land  are  not  a  part  of  the  land  itself.  But  by  the 
Civil  Law  and  the  Common  Law  the  provision  in  the  treaties 
that  no  tax  should  be  paid  on  the  property  greater  than  that 
fixed  in  ground  rent  would  have  prevented  the  levying  of 
any  tax  on  the  buildings  because,  by  such  laws,  improve- 
ments are  considered  to  be  a  part  of  the  land.  But  in  Jap- 
anese law  it  was  said  they  were  not  so  regarded  and  the  ques- 
tion was  whether  the  treaties  were  to  be  construed  accord- 
ing to  Japanese  law  or  according  to  the  laws  of  foreign  gov- 
ernments. The  subject  was  one  of  endless  discussion  while 
we  were  there,  and  Minister  Buck  had  already  referred  the 
question  to  the  State  Department  at  Washington. 

We  also  dined  with  Mrs.  Scidmore,  whom  I  was  to  meet 
many  times  in  after  years.  Mrs.  Scidmore  is  the  mother  of 
Eliza  Ramaha  Scidmore,  the  well  known  writer  about  Far 
Eastern  countries,  and  is,  I  suppose,  the  most  notable  foreign 
figure  in  the  Orient.  She  had  lived  in  Japan  since  the  early 

74 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

days,  not  so  long  after  the  country's  doors  were  opened  to 
the  world.  Her  son  was  in  the  Legation  service  when  I  met 
her  and  she  had  a  charming  house  on  the  Bund,  in  which  was 
gathered  a  remarkable  collection  of  Japanese  curios  and 
objects  of  art.  Mrs.  Scidmore  was  then  nearly  eighty  years 
of  age  I  think,  but  she  was  as  bright  and  young  as  a 
woman  of  fifty.  The  last  time  I  saw  her  she  was  nearly 
ninety  and  she  entertained  us  at  luncheon  in  Nagasaki,  where 
her  son  was  American  Consul.  She  dresses  with  as  much 
care  and  is  as  interested  in  fashions  and  fabrics  as  any  girl, 
and  it  is  a  rare  pleasure  to  see  her,  with  her  snowy  hair  piled 
up  on  her  head  and  a  white  silk  gown  spread  out  about  her, 
sitting  in  the  centre  of  a  group  of  people  discussing,  with 
great  animation  and  entire  comprehension,  general  topics  of 
current  interest.  She  afterward  went  to  "keep  house"  for 
her  son  in  Seoul,  Korea,  where  he  became  Consul  General, 
and  she  continues  to  be  a  sort  of  uncrowned  queen  of  foreign 
society. 

Leaving  our  children  at  the  bungalow  with  their  nurses, 
Mrs.  Wright,  Maria  and  I  went  about,  to  Nikko,  to  Kama- 
kura,  to  Kyoto  and  other  interesting  places,  and  we  spent 
the  intervals,  indeed  all  our  time,  in  restraining  our  intense 
desire  to  purchase  everything  we  saw  in  the  extraordinarily 
attractive  little  shops. 

About  the  last  of  July,  when  the  heat  began  to  be  rather 
more  than  we  could  stand,  we  left  Yokohama  and  went  up 
into  the  Hakone  Mountains  to  Miyanoshita.  The  trip  to 
Miyanoshita  includes  a  two  hours'  climb  in  'rickshas  up  a 
steep  incline  from  a  village  on  the  railway,  where  there  was 
then  no  sort  of  accommodation  for  "Europeans," — only 
Japanese  inns  which,  though  they  may  have  been  excellent 
from  a  Japanese  standpoint,  did  not  seem  to  us  to  have  been 
built  for  inn  purposes.  When  we  got  out  of  the  train  it  was 
seven  o'clock  in  the  evening.  There  were  Mrs.  Wright  and 
her  maid,  her  daughter  Katrina,  my  sister  Maria,  the  three 

75 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

children,  Bessie  the  nurse,  and  I.  We  wanted  din- 
ner above  all  things  else  and  we  decided  to  get  it.  It  all 
had  to  be  prepared  ' 'European  style"  at  one  of  the  little 
inns,  so  by  the  time  it  was  served  and  disposed  of  the 
night  was  upon  us,  and,  I  may  say,  the  blackest  night  I 
ever  remember  seeing.  We  debated  at  length  the 
possibility  of  taking  the  two  hours'  'ricksha  ride  in  such 
darkness,  but  the  chattering  coolies,  mainly  by  gesture  and 
facial  expression,  succeeded,  in  convincing  us  that  it  was 
the  most  desirable  thing  in  the  world  to  do.  Incidentally, 
and  aside  from  our  objection  to  the  bedless  inns,  we  were 
most  anxious  to  reach  our  journey's  end.  So — we  set  out, 
in  eight  'rickshas,  six  for  us  and  two  piled  high  with  hand 
luggage.  I  put  Helen  and  Robert  together  in  one  and  took 
Charlie  in  with  me,  and  each  of  us  had  an  extra  man  behind 
to  push,  also  two  men  each  for  the  baggage  'rickshas,  which 
made  sixteen  men  in  all.  We  made  quite  a  cavalcade  and 
I  felt  fairly  satisfied,  not  to  say  mildly  festive,  until  we  got 
away  from  the  lights  of  the  town  and  discovered,  to  our 
amazement,  that  for  some  reason  or  other,  the  'ricksha  men 
had  failed  to  bring  lights.  I  believe  the  idea  was  that  they 
could  keep  the  road  better  without  them.  We  went  along 
for  a  short  distance  in  the  Stygian  darkness,  then  Maria  de- 
cided that  she  wouldn't  have  it.  Whatever  we  might  do, 
she  was  going  back  for  a  lantern.  We  were  not  in  an  argu- 
mentative mood,  so  we  let  her  go  without  a  word,  while  we 
plunged  on. 

By  that  time  the  wind  was  tearing  down  through  what 
seemed  to  be  a  very  deep,  and  what  certainly  was  a  very 
dark,  canyon,  and  it  was  raining  steadily.  My  coolies 
lagged  behind  and  the  first  thing  I  knew  I  found  myself 
entirely  alone.  The  others  had  gone  so  far  ahead  that  I 
couldn't  even  hear  the  sound  of  their  'ricksha  wheels,  though 
the  'ricksha  of  those  days  was  a  very  noisy  little  vehicle.  I 
had  been  nearly  two  months  in  Japan,  had  had  plenty  of 

76 


HELEN  TAFT  IX  JAPANESE  COSTUME 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

experience  with  'ricksha  coolies  and  I  knew  them  to  be  the 
most  inoffensive  little  men  in  the  world,  but  the  darkness 
and  the  wind-driven  rain  and  the  discomfort  generally,  must 
have  got  on  my  nerves  because  I  began  to  be  perfectly  sure 
^that  my  two  men  were  nothing  less  than  brigands  and  that 
the  separation  from  my  party  was  a  prearranged  plan  for 
murder  and  robbery.  I  didn't  know  how  wide  the  road  was, 
but  I  knew  that  on  one  side  there  was  a  very  deep  chasm 
because  I  could  hear  the  roar  of  a  mountain  torrent  far  down 
and  directly  below  me.  Then  the  coolies  chattered  and 
grunted  incessantly,  as  Japanese  coolies  always  do,  and  I 
was  convinced  that  they  were  arguing  about  which  should 
take  the  initiative  in  violence.  But  I  sat  tight  and  said 
nothing,  which  was  the  only  thing  I  could  do,  of  course — 
except  to  soothe  Charlie  who  was  crying  with  discomfort  and 
fright — and  after  awhile — ages  it  seemed  to  me — I  came 
upon  the  rest  of  my  party  where  they  had  halted  in  the  road 
to  give  their  men  a  breathing  spell.  I  couldn't  see  them;  I 
couldn't  even  make  out  the  outlines  of  a  'ricksha,  but  I  could 
hear  Helen  sobbing  and  stammering  something  about  having 
lost  her  mother  for  good  and  all. 

The  coolies  were  chattering  at  each  other  at  a  terrific  rate 
and  I  judged,  from  their  tones,  that  they  liked  the  night 
no  better  than  we.  While  we  were  standing  close  together 
in  the  road,  all  talking  at  once  and  trying  to  tell  each  other 
what  horrible  experiences  we  had  had,  we  saw  a  faint 
glimmer  away  in  the  distance,  growing  more  and  more 
distinct  as  it  came  up  the  long  hill.  It  was  the  dauntless 
Maria  with  a  light.  We  fell  upon  her  with  the  warmest 
welcome  she  probably  ever  received  in  her  life,  and  every- 
body at  once  cheered  up.  Even  the  coolies  got  happier  and 
seemed  to  chatter  less  angrily  in  the  lantern's  dim  but  com- 
forting yellow  glow.  Nor  did  we  separate  again.  Every- 
body wanted  to  keep  close  to  that  light.  It  revealed  to  us 
the  reassuring  fact  that  the  road  was,  at  least,  wide  enough 

77 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

for  safety,  and  so  we  rolled  soggily  along,  with  no  other 
sound  but  the  rattle  of  many  wheels  and  the  splash  of  mud, 
until  we  arrived  at  the  Fujiya  Hotel,  sometime  after  ten 
o'clock,  in  a  state  of  utter  exhaustion. 

I  am  not  going  to  describe  Miyanoshita  because  it  has  been 
very  well  done  by  scores  of  writers,  but  I  will  say  that  the 
Fujiya  Hotel,  away  up  in  the  mountains,  at  the  head  of  a 
glorious  canyon,  is  one  of  the  most  splendidly  situated,  finely 
managed  and  wholly  delightful  places  I  ever  saw. 

And  there  are  plenty  of  things  to  do.  We  were  carried 
in  chairs  over  a  high  mountain  pass  to  Lake  Hakone,  which, 
still  and  bright  as  a  plate-glass  mirror,  lies  right  at  the  base 
of  Fujiyama  and  reflects  that  startlingly  beautiful  mountain 
in  perfect  colour  and  form. 

Then  there  are  temples  and  wayside  shrines,  and  tea- 
houses— tea-houses  everywhere.  We  were  coming  back  from 
a  tramp  one  day  and  stopped  at  a  tea-house  not  far  from  our 
hotel  where  we  encountered  an  Englishwoman  who  gave  us 
our  first  conception  of  what  the  terrible  Boxer  Insurrec- 
tion was  like.  She  entered  into  talk  with  us  at  once  and  told 
us  a  most  tragic  story.  She  was  a  missionary  from  the  in- 
terior of  China  and  had  been  forced  to  flee  before  the  Boxers 
and  make  her  way  out  of  the  country  in  hourly  peril  and 
through  scenes  of  the  utmost  horror.  Her  husband  had 
elected  to  remain  at  his  post  and  she  didn't  then  know  but 
that  he  might  already  have  died  under  the  worst  imaginable 
torture.  She  made  our  blood  run  cold  and  we  were  tre- 
mendously sorry  for  her,  though  she  did  tell  her  harrowing 
story  calmly  enough.  It  seems  she  had  with  her  a  young 
Chinese  refugee  who  was  a  convert  to  Christianity  and,  be- 
cause of  that  fact,  in  even  more  danger  in  China  than  she. 

We  expressed  our  sympathy  and  good  wishes  and  con- 
tinued on  our  way.  But  we  hadn't  gone  far  when  we  heard 
a  frantic  shouting  behind  us : 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

"Have  you  seen  my  Chinaman!  Have  you  seen  my 
Chinaman  anywhere  on  the  way !" 

It  was  the  missionary,  distracted  and  running  violently 
after  us;  and,  we  had  not  seen  her  Chinaman.  She  rushed 
past  and  up  into  the  woods  faster  than  one  would  have 
thought  she  could  run,  and  all  the  time  she  kept  calling, 
"Joseph!  Joseph!"  at  the  top  of  her  voice.  We  decided 
that  Joseph  was  the  Chinaman's  new  Christian  name  since  we 
had  heard  that  they  all  get  Biblical  names  at  baptism.  We 
hastened  along,  thinking  she  might  have  gone  suddenly  mad 
and  we  wondered  what  in  the  world  we  should  do.  But  as 
we  came  around  a  bend  in  the  road  we  saw  her  coming 
toward  us  with  a  grinning  little  queued  heathen  marching 
meekly  before  her.  She  was  looking  very  much  relieved  and 
stopped  to  explain  her  rather  extraordinary  conduct. 

"I  was  perfectly  certain  that  boy  had  committed  suicide," 
she  began. 

"Why,  what  made  you  think  that?"  I  asked. 

"Well,  he  wrote  that,  and  I  found  it!"  And  she  thrust 
into  my  hand  a  piece  of  paper  on  which  was  scrawled  in 
printed  characters : 

Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea, 
Save  that  Thy  blood  was  shed  for  me, 
And  that  Thou  bid'st  me  come  to  Thee, 
O  Lamb  of  God,  I  come,  I  come. 

She  explained  that  Joseph  had  had  a  great  deal  of  trouble ; 
was  away  from  his  people;  that  Chinamen  didn't  care  any- 
thing about  their  lives  anyhow;  and  that  she  had  been  afraid 
for  some  time  that  he  would  grow  despondent  and  do  some- 
thing desperate. 

But  there  stood  Joseph,  broadly  smiling  and  looking  for  all 
the  world  like  an  oriental  cherub  who  would  have  liked  very 
much  to  know  what  all  the  commotion  was  about.  Poor 

79 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

chap,  he  didn't  understand  a  word  of  English  and  had  been 
merely  trying  to  learn  the  words  of  an  English  hymn  by 
copying  them,  in  carefully  imitated  letters,  on  bits  of  paper. 

In  the  meantime  my  husband  had  arrived  in  Manila  and 
had  already  sent  me  several  letters  through  which  I  came 
gradually  to  know  something  of  the  situation  he  was  facing. 

The  principal  impression  I  received  was  that  between  the 
Commission  and  the  military  government,  in  the  person  of 
General  Arthur  MacArthur,  there  did  not  exist  that  har- 
mony and  agreement  which  was  considered  to  be  essential  to 
the  amicable  adjustment  of  Philippine  affairs.  In  other 
words,  General  MacArthur  seemed  to  resent  the  advent  of 
the  Commission  and  to  be  determined  to  place  himself  in 
opposition  to  every  step  which  was  taken  by  them  or  con- 
templated. It  was  not  very  easy  for  the  Commissioners, 
but  as  far  as  I  can  see  now,  after  a  careful  reading  of  all 
the  records,  they  exercised  the  most  rigid  diplomacy  at  times 
when  it  would  have  been  only  human  to  have  risen  up  and 
exercised  whatever  may  be  diplomacy's  antithesis. 

The  description  of  the  arrival  of  the  Commission  made 
me  .rather  wish  I  had  accompanied  them; — except  for  the 
heat.  It  was  June  and  my  husband  said  the  sun  beat  down 
upon  and  came  right  through  the  heavy  canvas  awnings  on 
the  decks  of  the  Hancock.  The  men  had,  by  this  time,  be- 
come accustomed  to  their  ill-fitting  white  linens,  but  they 
had  not  yet  mastered  the  art  of  keeping  them  from  looking 
messy,  and  they  must  have  been  a  wilted  company  during 
their  first  few  days  in  Manila. 

They  came  up  into  the  harbour  on  Sunday  and  during  the 
course  of  the  day  received  many  interesting  visitors.  Gen- 
eral MacArthur  was  not  among  them,  but  he  sent  a  member 
of  his  staff,  Colonel  Crowder,  to  present  his  compliments  and 
make  arrangements  for  the  going  ashore  ceremony  the  next 
day.  Then  came  the  AmericamstOS,  as  the  Filipinos  who 
sympathised  with  American  control  were  called.  These  had 

80 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

been  recognised  by  General  Otis  before  General  MacArthur 
had  arrived  and  many  of  them  have  always  been  promi- 
nently associated  with  the  American  government  in  the 
Islands.  Among  others  were  Chief  Justice  Arellano,  Mr. 
Benito  Legarda  and  Mr.  Pardo  de  Tavera.  The  Commis- 
sioners talked  about  the  situation  with  these  gentlemen, 
through  Mr.  Arthur  Fergusson,  the  Spanish  Secretary  of  the 
Commission,  and  found  them  not  altogether  despondent,  but 
certainly  not  optimistic  about  the  outcome.  They  thought 
the  Commissioners  were  facing  very  grave  problems  indeed, 
if  not  insurmountable  difficulties. 

The  next  day — "just  when  the  sun  got  the  hottest,"  wrote 
Mr.  Taft — all  the  launches  in  the  harbour  gathered  around 
the  Hancock^  many  whistles  blew,  many  flags  and  pennants 
fluttered,  and  the  Commission  was  escorted  to  the  shore. 
They  entered  the  city  with  great  pomp  and  circumstance, 
through  files  of  artillerymen  reaching  all  the  way  from  the 
landing  at  the  mouth  of  the  Pasig  River,  up  a  long  drive- 
way, across  a  wide  moat,  through  an  old  gateway  in  the  city 
wall  and  up  to  the  Palace  of  the  Ayuntamiento  where  Gen- 
eral MacArthur,  the  Military  Governor,  had  his  offices. 
But  it  was  not  a  joyous  welcome  for  all  that.  All  the  show 
was  merely  perfunctory;  a  sort  of  system  that  had  to  be 
observed.  Their  reception  was  so  cool  that  Mr.  Taft  said 
he  almost  stopped  perspiring.  There  were  few  Filipinos  to 
be  seen,  and  as  General  MacArthur' s  reception  to  the  Com- 
mission was  anything  but  cordial  or  enthusiastic  they  began 
to  feel  a  discomforting  sense  of  being  decidedly  not  wanted. 

If  they  had  any  doubts  on  this  point  General  MacArthur 
soon  cleared  them  up.  He  frankly  assured  them  that  he 
regarded  nothing  that  had  ever  happened  in  his  whole  career 
as  casting  so  much  reflection  on  his  position  and  his  ability 
as  their  appointment  under  the  direction  of  the  President. 
They  suggested  that  he  could  still  rejoice  in  considerable 
honour  and  prestige  as  a  man  at  the  head  of  a  division  of 

81 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

more  troops  than  any  general  had  commanded  since  the 
Civil  War  and  that  he  was,  moreover,  still  enjoying  the 
great  power  of  Chief  Executive  of  the  Islands. 

"Yes,"  said  he,  "that  would  be  all  right  if  I  hadn't  been 
exercising  so  much  more  power  than  that  before  you  came." 

Whereupon  Mr.  Taft  gently  reminded  him  that  he  had 
been  exercising  that  power  for  about  three  weeks  only  and 
said  he  hoped  he  had  not  become,  in  that  time,  so  habituated 
to  the  situation  as  to  prevent  his  appreciating  the  rather 
exalted  position  in  which  he  would  still  be  left.  They 
afterward  exchanged  some  correspondence  as  to  what  powers 
each  did  have,  but  they  seemed  to  have  disagreed  from  the 
first. 

General  MacArthur  succeeded  General  Otis  in  command 
of  the  United  States  Army  in  the  Philippines  and  he  had 
fallen  heir  to  a  policy  with  which  he  was  entirely  out  of 
sympathy.  General  Otis  had  scattered  the  troops  in  small 
divisions  and  detachments  all  over  the  Islands,  and  General 
MacArthur  found  himself  in  command  of  about  seventy 
thousand  men,  but  with  only  a  few  regiments  where  he  could 
lay  his  hands  on  them  for  action  in  his  own  immediate  vicin- 
ity. He  believed  that  the  only  way  to  get  rid  of  the  preda- 
tory bands  and  bring  order  out  of  a  chaotic  state,  was  to 
concentrate  the  army  on  the  island  of  Luzon  where  most 
of  the  active  insurrectos  operated.  And  he  thought  it  would 
be  many  years  before  the  Filipinos  would  be  ready  for  any- 
thing but  the  strictest  military  government.  But  the  trouble 
was  that  thousands  of  Filipinos  all  over  the  Islands  had 
already  sworn  fealty  to  the  United  States,  or  had  gone 
quietly  back  to  work,  and  it  was  known  that  the  lives  of 
many  of  these  would  not  be  worth  a  moment's  purchase  if 
the  protection  of  the  American  troops  was  withdrawn  from 
them.  That  was  the  situation. 

The  last  engagement  between  real  insurgents  and  Ameri- 
can troops  had  taken  place  in  February  before  the  Commis- 

82 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

sion  arrived.  There  had  been  men  of  some  ability  and  real 
patriotism  in  Aguinaldo's  cabinet  and  among  his  followers 
at  Malolos,  but  by  this  time  the  best  of  them  had  come  in 
and  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States,  others 
were  in  prison  slowly  making  up  their  minds  as  to  whether 
they  would  or  would  not  follow  this  course,  while  still  others 
had  gone  over  to  Hongkong  to  join  in  the  activities  of  the 
"junta."  Aguinaldo  was  still  roaming  around  the  mountain 
fastnesses  of  Luzon,  posing  as  a  dictator  and  issuing  regular 
instructions  to  his  lieutenants  for  the  annihilation  of  Ameri- 
can regiments;  but  the  insurrection  had  degenerated. 

The  companies  of  men  who  still  kept  the  field  did  so,  for 
the  most  part,  because  they  found  that  the  easiest  way  to 
make  a  living.  Money  was  getting  scarce  and  the  people 
were  steadily  refusing  to  contribute  to  the  cause.  A  letter 
from  one  of  Aguinaldo's  lieutenants  was  intercepted  in 
which  he  said  that  he  had  found  a  certain  town  obdurate  and 
that  he  thought  it  would  be  necessary  to  take  four  or  five 
lives  before  the  people  could  be  induced  to  give  money. 
Murder  and  rapine,  torture  and  robbery;  these  were  the 
methods  employed,  and  very  little  of  the  money  realised 
ever  found  its  way  into  the  general  revolutionary  coffers. 
Most  of  the  remaining  "patriots"  had  become  ladrones  and 
were  harrying  their  own  people  much  more  than  they  were 
opposing  the  American  forces. 

These  conditions  led  the  Commission  to  think  the  time  had 
come  to  organise  a  native  constabulary,  under  American 
officers,  with  which  thoroughly  to  police  the  Islands.  But 
General  MacArthur  did  not  agree  with  them;  thought  it 
would  be  folly  to  trust  any  Filipino  with  arms  and  cited 
instances  of  where  those  who  had  been  armed  as  scouts  had 
proved  entirely  untrustworthy.  But  the  suggestion  was 
received  by  many  of  his  own  officers  with  the  utmost  ap- 
proval and  one  man,  in  the  Ilocos  country  in  northern  Luzon, 
said  he  had  only  to  issue  a  call  and  he  could  have  five  thou- 

83 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

sand  as  loyal  men  as  ever  wore  uniform  enlisted  in  twenty- 
four  hours.  I  may  say  here  that  the  Filipino  people  are 
divided  into  a  number  of  distinct  tribes  and  that  some  of 
these  never  did  take  much,  if  any,  part  in  the  insurrection. 
The  insurrection  is  to-day  referred  to  as  the  Tagalog  rebel- 
lion, the  Tagalogs  being  one  of  the  principal  tribes,  though 
not  the  largest. 

There  had  always  been  a  great  number,  a  majority  in  fact, 
of  Filipinos  who  did  not  like  the  awful  conditions  created 
by  the  insurrection  and  who  easily  could  be  persuaded  to  an 
attitude  of  loyalty  toward  any  decent  and  peaceful  gov- 
ernment; and  it  was  from  this  number  that  the  Commission 
wanted  to  recruit  a  native  constabulary.  But  no.  The 
Commission  would  not  begin  to  exercise  such  powers  as  it 
had  until  September  and  in  the  meantime  General  Mac- 
Arthur  was  absolute  and  in  answer  to  this  proposition  he 
merely  reiterated  his  belief  that  the  only  way  to  meet  the 
situation  was  with  additional  American  troops. 

In  my  husband's  earliest  letters  he  characterised  the 
Filipino  people  much  as  he  did  after  years  of  experience 
with  them.  He  wrote  me  that  of  the  six  or  seven  millions 
of  Christian  Filipinos  about  two  per  cent,  were  fairly  well 
educated,  while  all  the  rest  were  ignorant,  quiet,  polite 
people,  ordinarily  inoffensive  and  light-hearted,  of  an  artistic 
temperament,  easily  subject  to  immoral  influences,  quite 
superstitious  and  inclined,  under  the  direction  of  others,  to 
great  cruelty.  He  thought  them  quite  capable  of  becom- 
ing educated  and  that  they  could  be  trained  to  self-govern- 
ment. He  was  inclined  to  think  that  they  had,  because  of 
their  environment  and  experience  under  Spanish  rule,  capac- 
ity for  duplicity,  but  he  did  not  think  they  had  the  Machia- 
vellian natures  which  people  attributed  to  them.  Some  of 
those  who  call  themselves  "illustrados" — the  higher  class — 
took  to  political  intrigue  with  great  gusto. 

Almost  the  first  experience  which  the  Commission  had 

84 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

with  Filipino  Machiavellian  methods  involved  them  in  a 
complication  which  might  have  proved  quite  serious.  If 
there  is  one  thing  in  the  world  that  the  Filipino  people,  as 
one  man,  love,  it  is  a  fiesta.  A  fiesta  is  a  holiday,  a  celebra- 
tion with  music,  marching,  many  flags,  best  clothes  and 
plenty  of  high-flown  speechmaking.  Now  there  was  one 
Pedro  A.  Paterno,  an  unctuous  gentleman,  who,  while  he 
had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  had  fairly  put  himself 
in  the  pocket  of  American  authority,  was  still  supposed  to 
be  more  or  less  in  sympathy  with  Aguinaldo.  He  made 
himself  the  mediator  between  General  MacArthur  and 
Aguinaldo  and  occasionally  promised  Aguinaldo's  surrender. 
Nobody  ever  knew  what  he  promised  Aguinaldo,  but  it  was 
known  to  a  certainty  that  he  was  "carrying  water  on  both 
shoulders"  and  doing  his  best  to  keep  in  well  with  both  sides. 
He  had  played  the  same  role  in  Spanish  times.  He  made 
what  is  known  in  history  as  "The  Peace  of  Biacnabato," 
between  the  insurrectos  and  the  Spanish  government,  by  the 
simple  means  of  "interpreting"  to  each  the  demands  of  the 
other  in  perfectly  satisfactory  terms.  He  did  all  the  trans- 
lating, on  both  sides,  himself  and  the  "Peace"  was  signed. 
Then  before  its  irregularities  were  made  clear  he  asked  of  the 
Spanish  government,  as  his  reward,  a  dukedom  and  a  mil- 
lion dollars  upon  which  to  live  up  to  the  title.  His  letter  to 
the  Spanish  governor  is  still  extant. 

This  gentleman  one  day,  out  of  a  clear  sky,  proposed  what 
he  called  an  Amnesty  Fiesta;  a  grand  banquet  in  honour  of 
General  MacArthur  to  follow  a  day  of  celebration  and  all- 
round  relaxation  from  the  strain  of  hostilities.  General 
MacArthur  didn't  see  that  it  would  do  any  harm,  but  said  he 
would  not  attend  the  banquet  in  his  honour  and  that  all  the 
speeches  that  were  to  be  made  would  have  to  be  carefully 
censored.  To  this  Pedro  readily  agreed  and  went  imme- 
diately to  work  to  make  elaborate  preparations  for  the  occa- 
sion. He  got  a  committee  together  and  sent  them  to  wait 

85 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

on  the  Commission  with  an  invitation  to  the  banquet.  Only 
three  of  the  Commissioners  were  in  town,  but  these,  after 
making  careful  inquiry  as  to  the  nature  of  the  entertainment 
and  discovering  that  no  incendiary  speech-making  was  to  be 
allowed,  decided  to  accept  the  invitation.  Paterno  was  in 
high  feather  and  nothing  but  the  fiesta  and  the  banquete 
was  talked  about  for  days.  But  gradually  information 
began  to  reach  the  ears  of  Mr.  Taft  that  all  was  not  as  it 
should  be.  He  learned  that  arches  were  being  erected 
across  certain  streets  bearing  inscriptions  that  were  insulting 
to  the  American  flag.  One  arch,  in  front  of  Malacanan 
Palace,  where  General  MacArthur  lived,  had  a  picture  of 
President  McKinley  on  one  side  and  a  picture  of  Aguinaldo 
on  the  other,  and  it  was  said  that  General  MacArthur  had 
ridden  under  this  arch  without  noticing  it.  That  would  be 
taken  for  sanction  by  an  ignorant  Filipino.  But  as  soon  as 
notice  was  called  to  them  all  the  objectionable  features  of 
the  arches  were  removed  and  preparations  went  on.  But 
rumours  kept  coming  in  about  the  speeches  until  Mr.  Taft 
became  curious.  He  went  to  General  MacArthur  and  asked 
who  was  doing  the  censoring. 

"Why,  Pedro  Paterno,"  said  the  General ;  as  much  as  to 
say,  "What  more  could  you  ask?" 

Mr.  Taft  went  back  to  the  office  and  straightway  set  about 
to  get  copies  of  those  speeches.  And,  he  got  them.  Some 
of  them  were  already  in  type  at  a  local  newspaper  office  and 
were  to  be  printed  in  full  the  next  morning.  This  was  the 
day  of  the  fiesta  and  it  was  proving  a  very  quiet  affair. 
There  was  little  enthusiasm  on  the  streets,  but  there  was 
plenty  of  interest  in  the  coming  banquete.  The  Commis- 
sioners looked  over  all  the  speeches  and  found  them,  without 
exception,  seditious  in  the  extreme.  So,  of  course,  they  could 
not  go  to  the  banquet.  They  could  not  sit  by  and  listen  to 
misrepresentations  without  getting  up  immediately  and  mak- 
ing vigorous  denial  and  protest  and  they  could  not  lend  the 

86 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

sanction  of  their  presence  to  an  entertainment  that  had  been 
so  arranged.  The  banquete  was  in  General  MacArthur's 
honour  and  the  speeches  glowingly  promised  everything 
short  of  immediate  evacuation  and  complete  independence. 

The  Commissioners  wrote  a  polite  little  note  to  Sefior 
Paterno  and  said  they  were  very  sorry  to  find  that  it  was  not 
possible,  under  the  circumstances,  for  them  to  be  present  that 
evening. 

Mr.  Taft  and  General  Wright  were  living  together  in  the 
house  that  my  husband  had  secured  for  us,  and  they  went 
home  and  had  a  comfortable  dinner  in  their  everyday  white 
linens  and  were  enjoying  post-prandial  talk  on  the  cool 
verandah  when  Pedro  Paterno  came  rushing  in  and,  figura- 
tively, threw  himself  on  his  knees  before  them.  He  begged 
them  to  come  with  him  to  the  banquete;  the  crowd  had  as- 
sembled; it  was  past  nine  o'clock;  and  he  would  be  placed 
in  a  terrible  situation  if  the  gentlemen  of  the  Commission 
did  not  reconsider  their  cruel  decision.  The  gentlemen  of 
the  Commission  asked  how  about  the  carefully  censored 
speeches.  Paterno  vowed  that  no  speeches  at  all  should  be 
delivered,  that  no  word  of  any  kind  should  be  said,  but  that 
they  must  show  themselves  to  the  people,  if  only  for  a  little 
while.  All  right.  They  quickly  got  into  their  hot  evening 
clothes  and  went  down  to  the  banquet  hall.  They  sat 
through  a  couple  of  silent,  weary  hours,  took  a  few  sips  of 
wine,  smiled  a  few  smiles,  shook  a  few  hands,  and  then  went 
home.  That  was  all  there  was  to  it.  But  Pedro  was  dis- 
credited in  both  camps.  His  purpose  had  been  to  have  the 
speeches  made  before  the  Commissioners,  claim  all  the  credit 
with  his  own  people  for  getting  the  Commissioners  there  and 
then  to  deny  to  the  Commissioners  all  responsibility  for  the 
occasion. 

The  forms  of  military  government  were  being  strictly 
observed;  there  was  a  nine  o'clock  curfew  and  nobody  was 
allowed  on  the  street  after  that  hour  without  a  pass.  Mr. 

87 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Taf t  wrote  of  several  trying  experiences  when  he  went  out  in 
the  evening  and  forgot  his  pass  and,  starting  home  about 
half  past  ten,  was  held  up  by  one  sentry  after  another  who 
demanded  an  explanation  at  the  point  of  a  gun. 

Mr.  Bryan  was  running  for  President  at  this  time  and 
he  was  making  a  good  deal  of  political  capital  out  of  the 
Philippine  situation.  He  had  promised  to  call  a  special 
session  of  Congress,  if  he  were  elected,  to  consider  means 
for  settling  the  Filipinos  in  immediate  self-government, 
and  he  had  a  large  following  of  mistakenly  altruistic  anti- 
imperialists  supporting  him.  Mr.  Taft  was  inclined  to 
think  that  the  whole  anti-American  demonstration,  which 
was  to  culminate  in  the  Amnesty  Fiesta  banquet,  was 
planned  by  a  Mr.  Pratt,  an  American  politician  then  visit- 
ing Manila,  who  wanted  the  "grandly  patriotic"  speeches 
to  publish  in  American  newspapers.  They  probably  would 
have  been  perfect  material  for  the  anti-imperialists  to  grow 
sentimental  over. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Bryan's  promises  and  the  possi- 
bility of  his  being  placed  in  a  position  to  redeem  them,  were 
retarding  pacification.  All  that  was  needed  to  discourage 
the  last  of  the  insurrectos  was  Mr.  McKinley's  election, 
and  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1900  was  probably  not 
watched  anywhere  with  more  breathless  interest  than  it 
was  in  the  Philippine  Islands. 

Such  were  the  lessons  in  letters  that  I  got  from  my  hus- 
band, and  my  imagination  was  fired.  He  had  great  pro- 
jects in  hand.  The  Commission  proposed  to  establish 
municipal  governments  wherever  conditions  made  it  pos- 
sible and  among  the  first  things  they  undertook  was  the 
framing  of  a  municipal  code  upon  which  to  base  such  gov- 
ernments. They  sent  this  to  General  MacArthur  for  his 
comments,  but  his  comments  consisted  in  a  rather  pointed 
intimation  that  military  rule  was  still  in  force  and  that 
he  thought  they  were  several  years  ahead  of  possibilities, 

88 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

but  that  they  might  go  on  and  amuse  themselves  since  their 
municipal  code  would  not  deter  him  in  any  action  he  found 
it  necessary  to  take  at  any  point  where  it  was  in  operation. 
All  this  was  couched  in  most  excellent  diplomatic  language, 
of  course,  but  it  amounted  to  just  that.  An  equally  dip- 
lomatic reply  seems  to  have  brought  the  General  to  a  reali- 
sation that  the  powers  of  the  Commission  were  well  de- 
fined, that  their  object  was  peaceful  pacification  wher- 
ever it  was  possible  and  that  they  would  probably  be  sup- 
ported by  Washington  in  any  reasonable  measures  they  might 
take  to  that  end. 

They  had  many  plans  already;  a  big  general  school  sys- 
tem for  the  organisation  of  which  they  had  engaged  a 
superintendent  from  Massachusetts;  good  roads  to  open  up 
the  country  for  commerce;  harbour  improvements;  health 
measures;  a  reliable  judiciary;  a  mountain  resort  where 
American  soldiers  and  civilians  might  recuperate  from  tropic 
disease,  thereby  saving  many  lives  to  say  nothing  of  mil- 
lions of  dollars  to  the  government  in  troop  transportation 
charges;  and  they  were  already  attacking  the  vexed  friar 
question  that  had  caused  all  the  trouble  in  the  first  place. 

The  letters  made  me  anxious  to  finish  my  visit  in  Japan 
and  get  down  to  Manila  where  so  much  of  vital  and  en- 
grossing interest  was  going  on.  My  husband  wrote  rather 
discouragingly  about  the  house  he  had  taken,  but  he  was 
having  some  improvements  made  and,  though  I  did  not 
expect  to  find  comfort,  I  was  sure  I  should  manage  to  get 
along.  I  had  purchased  in  Japan  a  number  of  bright  and 
artistic  objects  in  the  way  of  house  decorations  and  I 
thought  that,  with  these,  I  should  be  able  to  make  almost 
any  place  look  inviting. 

The  Boxer  rebellion  was  troubling  us  more  than  any- 
thing else  at  the  moment.  We  wanted  very  much  to  go  to 
Shanghai,  but  were  told  that  it  would  be  absolutely  unsafe 
for  us  to  go  anywhere  in  China  except  to  Hongkong. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

I  didn't  know  much  about  the  East  at  that  time  and  was 
ready  to  believe  anything  that  was  told  me.  However, 
I  remembered  that  there  were  thousands  of  foreign  resi- 
dents in  Shanghai  who  were  going  on  about  their  daily 
affairs  much  as  if  there  were  no  such  thing  as  a  Boxer.  So 
we,  too,  decided  to  go  on  our  usual  tranquil  way  and  we 
set  sail  for  Manila,  via  Shanghai  and  Hongkong,  on  the 
Japanese  steamer,  Kasuga  Maru,  on  the  tenth  day  of  August. 


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MRS.    TAFT   IX    FORMAL    FILIPIXA   COSTUME 


CHAPTER  V 

FIRST    IMPRESSIONS    OF    MANILA 

THE  China  Sea  has  an  evil  reputation.  On  its  shores  one 
hears  much  about  the  typhoon  season  and  the  changing  mon- 
soons, and  bad  sailors  would,  no  doubt,  like  to  have  their 
sailing  dates  determined  by  the  Weather  Bureau;  but  this 
is  not  always  possible. 

The  Kasuga  Maru,  on  which  we  made  the  voyage  from 
Yokohama  to  Manila,  lay  in  Hongkong  Harbour  while 
one  of  the  great  mid-August  storms  tore  up  from  the  south 
and  set  skippers  and  seamen  agog  with  fears  of  dreadful 
conditions  we  would  have  to  meet  on  the  trip  across  to 
Manila.  In  the  China  Sea  there  are  cross-currents  which 
make  for  bad  going  at  the  best  of  times,  and  when  they 
are  piled  up  by  a  typhoon  into  great,  warring  waves  the 
result  is  likely  to  be  extraordinary. 

My  husband  cabled  me  to  take  a  larger  vessel,  a  United 
States  army  transport  which  left  Hongkong  about  the  same 
time  we  did,  but  I  was  comfortably  located  with  my  fam- 
ily on  the  little  Kasuga  Maru;  the  transfer  of  baggage  was 
a  troublesome  task;  and  I  figured  that  as  long  as  the  Kasuga 
Maru  had  been  afloat  in  south  seas  for  a  good  many  years, 
she  might  be  trusted  to  keep  afloat  for  a  few  days  longer. 

We  caught  the  calm  between  two  storms.  The  sea  had 
been  beaten  down  by  torrential  rains;  and  while  great, 
smooth  waves  rose  under  us  and  sent  us  rolling  in  a  sick- 
ening zigzag  all  the  way  across,  there  was  in  them  no  threat 
of  destruction,  and  I  really  began  to  feel  that  the  China 
Sea  had  been  maligned. 

A  feeling  of  intense  curiosity  got  me  out  of  my  state- 
room bright  and  early  on  the  morning  of  our  arrival  in 
Manila. 

To  the  northward  lay  a  stretch  of  unbroken,  mountain- 

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ous  shoreline;  while  we  were  headed  for  a  narrow  channel 
guarded  by  rock  islands  against  which  the  surf  broke  in 
clouds  of  spray. 

"Corregidor,"  said  the  skipper,  pointing  to  a  high,  green 
hill  behind  the  rocks.  Corregidor, — it  was  the  first  time  I 
had  ever  heard  the  name  which  since  has  become  synonym- 
ous, in  so  many  minds,  with  Gibraltar.  On  the  other  side  of 
the  entrance  to  Manila  Bay  stood  Meriveles,  a  beautiful 
mountain,  sloping  gently  back  from  the  sea  and  up  into 
soft,  white  clouds.  But  Manila, — where  was  Manila4? 
Cavite, — where  was.  Cavite?  And  where  did  the  Spanish 
ships  lie,  when  Dewey  sailed  in  past  Corregidor  not  knowing 
what  he  would  find?  Questions,  these,  which  everybody 
asked  in  those  days.  Manila  was  twenty  miles  ahead  at 
the  far  end  of  the  Bay,  while  Cavite,  across  on  the  south 
shore,  in  the  nearer  distance,  lay  flat  and  almost  invisible 
under  low-spreading  trees. 

Flat;  that  is  the  word  which  occurs  to  everybody  who 
sails  for  the  first  time  into  Manila  Bay.  The  city  is  built 
on  the  low-lands;  low,  as  I  afterward  learned,  to  the  point 
of  being  below  sea-level  in  certain  places,  and  subject  to 
sudden  floods  in  the  big  typhoons.  But  far  behind  the  flats 
are  towering  ranges  of  blue  and  purple  hills,  with  here  and 
there  a  softly  rounded  mountain  standing,  seemingly,  alone. 

The  hot  sun  beat  down  on  the  glassy  surface  of  the  Bay 
and  sent  back  a  blinding  glare  which  brought  an  ache  into 
eyes  and  nerves,  but  we  were  all  too  interested  to  seek  shel- 
ter in  the  darkened  cabin. 

While  our  ship  was  still  miles  from  shore  we  could  see 
long  lines  of  low,  red  roofs  and  the  white  gleam  of  many 
domes  and  spires;  and  off  to  the  right  we  had  pointed  out 
to  us  the  eloquent  wrecks  of  some  of  the  Spanish  fleet  whose 
masts  and  battered  hulks  rose  high  out  of  the  shallow  water 
in  which  they  were  sunk. 

But  for  ourselves,  for  me,  for  Mrs.  Wright,  for  Maria 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  the  children,  the  most  important  thing  in  sight  was  a 
little  fleet  of  harbour  launches  which  came  hurrying  down 
the  Bay  to  meet  us.  I  saw  my  husband  and  General 
Wright  standing  in  the  bow  of  one  of  these  long  before 
they  could  pick  us  out  in  the  crowd  of  passengers  lining  the 
rails  of  the  Kasuga  Maru. 

Then  came  the  happy  wel comings  which  make  absences 
worth  while;  excited  children;  everybody  talking  at  once; 
explanations  begun  and  never  finished;  interruptions  by 
customs  officials — American  soldiers  in  those  days;  com- 
ments on  the  heat  and  the  bright  white  light,  and  laughing 
assurances  that  it  wasn't  hot  at  all  and  that  the  climate  was 
perfect;  transferring  baggage  to  the  launch;  glimpsing,  oc- 
casionally, strange  scenes  and  strange  peoples;  asking  and 
answering  a  thousand  questions ;  busy,  bustling,  delightfully 
confusing  hours  of  landing  in  the  farthest  orient. 

Our  husbands  turned  themselves  into  willing  "Baede- 
kers" and  instructed  us  on  the  way.  We  steamed  up  in 
our  little  launch  to  the  mouth  of  the  Pasig  River,  wide  and 
deep  and  swift,  and  covered  with  what  looked  to  me  like 
millions  of  small,  green  cabbages. 

"Carabao  lettuce;  the  river's  full  of  it,"  explained  Mr. 
Taft,  but  I  was  much  too  occupied  just  then  to  stop  and  ask 
what  "carabao  lettuce"  might  be. 

We  came  up  past  a  bristling  fort  at  the  corner  of  a  great, 
grey,  many-bastioned  and  mediseval  wall  which  stretched 
as  far  as  I  could  see  down  the  bay  shore  on  one  side  and  up 
the  river  on  the  other. 

"The  Old  Walled  City,"  said  General  Wright,  and  I 
knew  at  once  that  I  should  love  the  old  Walled  City. 

"The  oldest  parts  of  the  walls  were  built  in  the  sev- 
enteenth century,"  continued  our  animated  guide-book,  "and 
the  fort  on  the  corner  is  Santiago.  The  big  dome  is  the 
Cathedral  and  all  the  red  tile  roofs  are  convents  and  mon- 
asteries. The  twentieth  century  hasn't  reached  here  yet. 

93  * 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

To  all  intents  and  purposes  the  Walled  City  is  still  in  the 
Middle  Ages."  The  truth  is  that  only  part  of  the  walls  are 
really  very  old — some  parts  have  been  built  within  seventy 
years. 

The  river  was  full  of  strange  craft;  long,  high-prowed, 
cumbersome  looking  boats,  with  rounded  deck-houses  roofed 
with  straw  matting  and  painted  in  every  conceivable  colour 
and  pattern,  which,  we  were  told,  were  cascoes — cargo 
boats  which  ply  the  length  of  the  Pasig  and  bring  down  the 
cocoanuts  and  sugar-cane  and  other  products  from  the  mid- 
dle provinces.  The  only  visible  propelling  power  on  these 
cascoes — and  the  only  power  they  have — are  natives, 
naked  to  the  waist,  armed  with  long  bamboo  poles  upon 
which,  having  fixed  them  firmly  in  the  mud  at  the  bottom 
of  the  river,  they  push  steadily  as  they  walk  the  length 
of  the  narrow  running  board  along  the  outer  edge  of  the 
deck.  I  should  say  they  might  make  a  mile  in  about  two 
hours. 

Then  there  were  the  curious  little  bancas;  narrow  canoes, 
hewn  out  of  single  logs  and  kept  on  an  even  keel,  usually, 
by  graceful  outriggers  of  bamboo. 

Across  the  river  from  the  Walled  City  is  the  Custom 
House,  and  there,  in  a  few  moments,  we  drew  up  at  a 
slippery,  low,  stone  landing  and  climbed  ashore.  My  feet, 
at  last,  were  on  Philippine  soil. 

If  I  had,  for  the  time  being,  forgotten  that  a  war  was 
going  on  I  was  immediately  reminded  of  it.  The  Custom 
House  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Military  Government  and  it 
was  surrounded  by  khaki-clad  guards  who  all  stood  stiffly 
at  attention  as  my  husband  and  Generel  Wright  passed. 
All  our'  necessary  luggage  had  been  released  and  put  into 
the  hands  of  orderlies  to  be  delivered,  so  we  were  free  to 
start  at  once  for  home. 

My  husband  had  written  me  that  the  Philippine  horses 
and  the  Philippine  cockroaches  were  just  about  the  same 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

size,  but  I  was  hardly  prepared  for  the  diminutive  turnout 
to  which  he  proudly  escorted  me.  Two  little  brown  ponies, 
no  higher  than  my  shoulder,  and  with  very  shaggy  manes 
and  foretops,  were  hitched  to  a  Victoria  which  had  been 
built  to  fit  them.  When  I  stepped  in  and  sat  down,  with 
Charlie  on  my  lap,  I  felt  twice  my  natural  size  and  it 
seemed  impossible  to  me  that  there  was  still  ample  room  for 
Mr.  Taft. 

On  the  box  were  two  stolid  little  men,  dignified  by  the 
titles  of  coachman  and  footman.  They  each  wore  white 
linen  trousers  and  thin  shirts  which  hung  outside,  making 
them  look  as  if  they  had  forgotten  a  most  important  act  in 
the  process  of  dressing.  Their  bare  feet  were  thrust  into 
heelless  red  carpet-slippers,  while  on  their  heads  were  wide, 
flopping,  shapeless  straw  hats  which  they  did  not  trouble  to 
take  off  at  our  approach. 

The  streets  were  full  of  such  conveyances  as  ours,  and 
others  of  varieties  even  more  astonishing.  Maria,  with 
Robert  and  Helen,  followed  in  a  quilez — a  miniature,  one- 
horse  omnibus  affair  into  which  the  passengers  climbed  from 
the  rear.  Then  there  were  calesas,  caromatas,  carretelas 
and  carabao  carts. 

The  carabao  carts  interested  me  particularly,  and  there 
seemed  to  be  more  of  them  than  of  anything  else.  The 
cart  itself  was  nothing, — just  a  few  planks  nailed  together 
and  balanced  upon  a  pair  of  heavy,  broad,  wooden  wheels, 
— but  the  beast  attached  to  it  was  really  extraordinary. 
The  first  carabao  I  saw  had  horns  at  least  six  feet  across. 
Indeed,  they  all  have  very  long  horns,  and  how  they  keep 
from  obstructing  traffic  in  the  narrow  streets  I  never  did 
understand.  They  do  obstruct  traffic,  as  matter  of  fact, 
but  not  with  their  horns;  only  with  their  slow  motions. 
Nobody  can  possibly  know  just  what  the  word  slow  signi- 
fies until  he  has  seen  a  carabao  move.  Great,  grey,  thick- 
skinned,  hairless  beast;  his  hide  is  always  caked  with  mud, 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  he  chews  and  walks  at  exactly  the  same  pace  while  the 
half-naked,  sleepy  driver  on  the  cart  behind  him  gives  an 
occasional  jerk  on  the  thin  rope  attached  to  the  ring  in  his 
nose. 

It  was  sometime  before  I  came  to  know  calesas,  caromatas 
and  carretelas  apart,  though  their  only  likeness  lies  in  the 
fact  that  each  has  two  wheels  and  to  each  is  attached  one 
busy  little  bit  of  a  horse.  The  calesa  and  caromata  are 
the  better  class  vehicles,  while  the  carretela  is  a  plebeian  pub- 
lic carryall  in  which  there  always  seems  to  be  "room  for  one 
more."  I  saw  dozens  of  these  packed  with  Filipinos;  the 
driver — always  and  inevitably  smoking — sitting  close  up 
behind  his  horse  and  lashing  it  continually  while  it  strug- 
gled sturdily  along  and  looked  every  minute  as  if  it  would 
be  lifted  off  its  feet  by  the  overbalancing  weight  behind 
it.  It  was  something  of  a  shock  to  see  many  women,  in 
carretelas  and  on  the  street,  smoking  huge  black  cigars; 
while  I  noticed,  immediately,  that  the  men,  as  a  rule,  smoke 
only  cigarettes. 

I  didn't  look  for  speed  from  our  little  brown  creatures, 
but  I  was  yet  to  become  acquainted  with  the  Philippine 
pony.  We  started  off  over  the  rough  cobblestones  at  a 
pace  that  was  truly  terrifying,  and  everybody  else  seemed 
to  be  going  at  about  the  same  rate.  I  expected  a  collision 
every  moment.  Wheels  passed  wheels  without  an  inch  to 
spare,  and  without  an  instant's  slackening  of  speed.  My 
heart  was  in  my  mouth  until  we  got  through  the  maze  of 
narrow  streets  in  the  wholesale  district  near  the  Custom 
House  and  came  out  into  a  wide  plaza  which  my  husband 
informed  me  was  the  end  of  the  Escolta,  the  principal  busi- 
ness street  of  the  city.  I  was  very  glad  we  didn't  have  to 
drive  through  that;  it  was  just  about  wide  enough  for 
two  carriages  to  pass,  but  it  had  a  street-car  track  right 
down  the  middle,  and  it  was  thronged.  On  the  track  was 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

a  jingling  little  horse-car  which  seemed  to  get  very  much 
tangled  up  with  the  rest  of  the  traffic. 

I  got  an  impression  of  a  great  variety  of  colour  in  which 
red  and  yellow  seemed  to  predominate.  The  soldiers  were 
in  khaki,  the  officers  and  civilians  were  in  immaculate 
white  linen,  while  the  Filipino  men  and  women  of  the  or- 
dinary class  looked  as  if  they  had  made  a  heavy  draft  on 
the  world's  supply  of  red  and  yellow  muslin,  to  say  nothing 
of  many  calicoes  of  extravagant  hues  and  patterns. 

We  hurried  on  around  the  corner  and  came  again  to  the 
banks  of  the  river  and  the  Bridge  of  Spain.  Mr.  Taft 
wanted  me  to  know  all  about  everything  right  away,  so  he 
kept  on  busily  explaining  things  to  me,  but  using  so  many 
unfamiliar  words  that  I  got  only  a  hazy  impression  after  all. 

But  here  was  the  Bridge  of  Spain,  originally  built  in  six- 
teen hundred  and  something,  the  oldest  monument  to  Span- 
ish enterprise  in  the  Islands.  And  across  on  the  other  side 
we  came  abreast  of  the  inner  wall  of  the  city  and  whirled 
along  awhile  beside  a  wide,  stagnant  moat.  From  the  inner 
side  I  got  a  better  idea  of  what  the  Walled  City  was  like, 
and  I  promised  myself  an  early  inspection  of  its  mysteries. 
I  wanted  to  walk  across  the  old  drawbridges  and  through  the 
beautiful  gateways  which  looked  so  ancient  and  were  so 
suggestive  of  piratical  and  warlike  history. 

"Those  are  the  Botanical  Gardens,"  said  Mr.  Taft — • 
"the  man  from  Cook's" — making  a  general  sort  of  gesture 
toward  the  other  side  of  the  street.  What  I  saw  was  a 
small  gravelled  park  with  some  avenues  of  fine  palms,  some 
other  kinds  of  trees,  and  a  few  clumps  of  shrubbery.  We 
were  driving  under  the  low-hanging  branches  of  some  mag- 
nificent old  acacias,  but  everything  looked  neglected  and 
run  down,  and  there  didn't  seem  to  be  a  bit  of  grass  any- 
where; just  scorching  sand  and  clay.  It  was  really  a  relief 
to  rest  one's  eyes  on  the  awful  green  scum  on  the  surface 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

of  the  moat.  Manila  in  those  days  was  not  the  beautiful, 
park-like,  well-kept  city  that  it  has  since  become.  There 
were  soldiers  everywhere,  and  it  seemed  to  me  we  were  being 
constantly  saluted. 

"And  now  we  come  to  the  far-famed  Luneta,"  said  Mr. 
Taft,  quite  proudly. 

"Where?'  I  asked.  I  had  heard  much  of  the  Luneta 
and  expected  it  to  be  a  beautiful  spot. 

"Why,  here.     You're  on  it  now,"  he  replied. 

An  oval  drive,  with  a  bandstand  inside  at  either  end, — 
not  unlike  a  half-mile  race  track, — in  an  open  space  on  the 
bay  shore ;  glaringly  open.  Not  a  tree ;  not  a  sprig  of  any- 
thing except  a  few  patches  of  unhappy  looking  grass. 
There  were  a  few  dusty  benches  around  the  bandstands, 
nothing  else; — and  all  burning  in  the  white  glare  of  the 
noonday  sun. 

"Why  far-famed?'  I  asked. 

Then  he  explained  in  a  way  which  made  me  understand 
that  the  Luneta  is  not  what  it  is,  but  rather  what  it  stands 
for  in  the  life  of  the  community.  He  said  that  in  the  cool 
of  the  evening  there  were  bands  in  the  bandstands  and  that 
everybody  in  the  world  came  and  drove  around  and  around 
the  oval,  exchanging  greetings  and  gossip,  while  the  chil- 
dren with  their  nurses  played  in  the  sand  on  the  narrow 
beach.  It  didn't  sound  exciting  to  me,  but  I  was  afterward 
to  learn  that  the  Luneta  is  a  unique  and  very  delightful  in- 
stitution. 

We  tore  on  at  a  terrific  rate  and  came,  at  last,  into  a  nar- 
row residence  street  where  the  rapid  clatter  of  our  ponies' 
feet  awoke  echoes  from  closely  set  houses  which  looked  as 
if  all  their  inhabitants  were  asleep.  And  they  were,  of 
course,  it  being  the  siesta  hour. 

The  houses  were  nearly  all  built  in  the  Spanish  style  with 
high  stone  basements — covered  with  mouldy  whitewash — 
and  frame  superstructures  overhanging  the  street,  and 

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A    CARVED      KARA     OR     PHILIPPINE     MAHOGANY     BED     NOW    IN 

AIR.  TAFT'S  ROOM  AT  NEW  HAVEN 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

screened  from  the  heat  and  glare  with  finely  woven,  green 
bamboo  curtains.  Here  and  there  the  "nipa  shack"  of  the 
low  class  native  had  elbowed  its  way  into  this  fashionable 
neighbourhood,  and  through  open  spaces  I  caught  glimpses 
of  wide  stretches  of  thatch  roofs  in  the  near  distance,  where 
hundreds  of  these  inflammable  huts  were  huddled  together 
in  "native  quarters." 

When  the  end  of  the  street  came  in  sight  I  began  to  won- 
der. It  seemed  to  me  we  had  driven  many  miles. 

"Well,  where  do  we  live  2"  I  asked.  "Have  you  taken  a 
house  in  the  country*?" 

"Not  quite,"  said  Mr.  Taft,  "but  nearly." 

It  was  the  last  house  in  the  street,  surrounded  by  a  very 
formidable  looking,  high  stone  wall.  The  first  thing  I 
knew  we  had  whirled  through  a  gateway  and  were  driving 
past  a  row  of  soldiers  who  stood  at  attention,  with  their 
guns  held  stiffly  in  front  of  them.  I  knew  our  house  had 
to  be  guarded,  but  it  was  something  of  a  shock  for  a  mo- 
ment, just  the  same,  to  see  the  guardhouse  and  the  trim 
soldiers  with  their  business-like  equipment. 

If  I  had  expected  anything  very  fine  or  beautiful  in  the 
way  of  a  tropical  garden,  I  was  disappointed.  I  don't 
know  whether  I  did  or  not.  The  wonder  to  me  now  is  how 
Americans  ever  did  succeed  in  getting  parks  and  gardens 
made.  It  only  means  that  the  Filipino  has  learned,  or  is 
learning  how  to  work.  He  always  was  willing  to  work,  a 
certain  amount,  but  he  didn't  know  how.  My  husband's 
description  of  how  he  got  a  bit  of  grading  done  is  typical. 
The  first  conclusion  he  reached  in  Manila  was  that  the 
people  knew  nothing  about  the  value  of  time,  and  it  must 
have  been  a  strain  on  his  temperate-zone  nervous  system 
to  watch  a  squad  of  men  at  work  in  his  garden. 

They  deposited  the  material — as  usual — as  far  as  they 
could  from  the  spot  where  it  was  to  be  used;  then,  one 
after  another,  barelegged,  bare  bodied,  incessantly  smok- 

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ing,  they  would  take  up  small  shovels  full  of  earth,  carry 
them  all  the  way  across  the  garden,  resting  once  or  twice  on 
the  way,  dump  the  material  somewhere  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
place  where  it  belonged,  then  drag  slowly  back  and  repeat 
the  operation.  This  was  the  sort  of  thing  which  made 
Americans,  in  the  early  days,  dance  with  impatience;  the 
sort  of  thing  which  made  Mr.  Bryan's  campaign  talk  about 
"cheap"  Filipino  labour  invading  the  United  States  seem 
to  us  so  utterly  ridiculous.  We  knew  that  Filipino  labour 
was  the  most  expensive  labour  in  the  world;  since  it  took 
ten  men  to  do  one  American's  work. 

My  husband  had  written  me  about  the  difficulty  he  had 
had  in  securing  a  suitable  house,  and  had  also  explained 
that  he  was  having  a  number  of  repairs  and  changes  made 
which,  he  hoped,  would  put  the  place  in  good  order  by  the 
time  I  arrived.  The  garden  was  large,  but  it  boasted 
neither  lawns  nor  flowers  of  any  kind.  A  few  patches  of 
grass  struggling  with  the  hard  white  gravel  and  clay,  and 
looking  pretty  hopeless,  nothing  else.  Around  a  curving 
drive  we  swung  up  under  a  porte-cochere,  over  which  hung 
a  magnificent  rubber  tree,  and,  stepping  from  the  under- 
sized Victoria  onto  the  finest  of  white  marble  steps,  I  found 
myself  at  home. 

Our  house  was  really  the  best  that  my  husband  could 
secure.  When  he  first  looked  at  it  he  was  certain  it 
wouldn't  do  at  all.  It  belonged  to  Chief  Justice  Arellano, 
and  the  army  officer  who  went  with  him  to  look  for 
quarters  assured  him  that  it  was  the  only  thing  in  town 
that  he  could  possibly  live  in;  but  he  didn't  believe  it. 
It  had  been  occupied  by  army  officers  and  had  been  greatly 
abused.  Its  furniture  was  broken  and  piled  in  heaps; 
its  walls  were  ragged;  and  its  floors  were  scarred  and 
dirty. 

"I'll  just  have  a  look  at  some  others,"  said  Mr.  Taft. 

And  he  did.  He  went  all  over  town,  and  he  says  that 

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every  house  he  looked  at  added  some  new,  desirable  aspect  to 
the  Arellano  house,  until,  finally,  it  became  in  his  eyes  a  sort 
of  palace  which  needed  only  a  touch  here  and  there  to  make 
it  quite  perfect. 

It  backed  directly  on  the  Bay,  and  among  the  first  things 
he  did  was  to  have  a  sea-wall  built  which  he  thought  added 
safety  to  the  top-heavy  structure,  but  which,  during  the 
typhoon  season,  really  cost  him  more  than  it  was  worth. 
Every  time  a  big  wind  came  and  roughed  up  the  Bay  a  little, 
a  part  of  his  wall  went  out.  His  first  complaint  to  me  was 
that  he  had  been  "holding  that  wall  down"  all  summer,  and 
that  part  of  it  was  always  sure  to  try  to  get  away  every 
time  he  found  himself  particularly  occupied  with  harassing 
governmental  difficulties. 

He  had  had  sod  laid  down  between  the  house  and  the 
sea-wall,  and  had  watched  it  for  awhile  with  a  faith  which 
should  have  been  rewarded,  but  the  salt  spray  came  dashing 
over  it  and  he  had  to  have  it  carefully  taken  up  and  moved 
around  to  the  sheltered  side  of  the  house.  Good  sod  was 
scarce  in  Manila  in  those  days. 

My  husband  was  certainly  glad  to  see  me,  and  I  don't 
doubt  that  General  Wright  was  just  as  glad  to  see  his 
wife.  The  two  of  them  had  been  "keeping  house"  together 
for  three  months  under  conditions  wholly  new  to  them,  and 
I  gathered  that  they  found  a  bachelor  existence  rather  com- 
plicated and,  in  certain  details,  annoying.  In  some  ways, 
after  the  manner  of  men,  they  had  permitted  the  house  to 
run  itself  and  I  did  not  find  it  easy  to  break  up  the  system 
which  had  been  inaugurated. 

The  house  was  not  perfect,  by  any  means,  but  it  was  big 
and  roomy  and  had  what  a  woman  knows  as  "great  possi- 
bilities"; possibilities  which  I  found  had  to  be  slowly  de- 
veloped with  the  assistance  of  a  somewhat  taciturn  and  not 
altogether  willing  menage. 

Coming  in  from  the  grand  marble  steps  one  passed  up  a 

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short,  but  spacious  hardwood  stairway  into  a  wide  central 
hall  which  opened  out  on  a  tile  floored  verandah,  overlook- 
ing the  Bay  and  running  the  entire  width  of  the  house. 
This  verandah  was  enclosed  by  sliding  windows  divided 
into  panes  about  six  inches  square,  not  any  two  of  which 
were  the  same  colour.  All  the  other  windows  in  the  house 
were  made  of  beautiful,  translucent  pearl-shell  in  four  inch 
sections — more  like  screens  than  windows — which  let  in  the 
light  and  kept  out  the  glare,  but  on  the  verandah  the  archi- 
tect had  tried  to  surpass  himself,  with  the  result  that  royal 
purple,  orange,  pink,  bright  blue  and  green  glass  disclosed 
to  one  a  multi-coloured  and  distracting  stretch  of  other- 
wise beautiful  bay.  The  hard  white  light  was  a  thousand 
times  more  bearable  than  such  a  kaleidoscope,  and  after  I 
got  home  those  windows  were  seldom  closed. 

On  either  side  of  the  broad  central  hall  were  two  large 
rooms;  one  the  dining-room,  the  others  commodious  bed- 
rooms; while  over  the  porte-cochere  was  a  small  drawing- 
room.  Downstairs  were  the  baths  and  three  large  rooms 
and  a  duplicate  of  the  upstairs  verandah.  This  part  of  the 
house,  which  was  dry  and  well-built,  I  forthwith  turned  over 
to  the  children. 

Some  of  the  furniture  was  very  fine ;  big  hardwood  tables 
and  old  Spanish  pieces  made  from  the  beautiful  woods  of 
the  Islands,  but  everything  was  greatly  in  need  of  the 
polisher's  brush  and  chamois.  The  floors,  alternating, 
broad,  hand  hewn  planks  of  nara  and  ipil^  were  as  fine  as 
any  I  ever  saw,  though  they,  too,  needed  long  and  pains- 
taking attention.  In  the  bedrooms  were  high  canopied  and 
mosquito-netted  beds  with  cane  bottoms,  exactly  like  cane- 
bottomed  chairs,  and  without  mattresses.  Everything  else 
was  wicker. 

The  thing  which  caught  my  attention  first,  however,  were 
the  fans.  My  husband  had  written  me,  with  great  pride 
and  satisfaction,  that  he  had  put  in  electric  fans,  and  that 

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they  had  "saved  his  life."  I  had  some  sentimental  at- 
tachment for  them  on  this  account — until  I  saw  them.  But 
when  I  saw  them  I  felt  at  once  that  everything  else,  to  be 
in  keeping,  ought  surely  to  be  swathed  in  fly-specked  pink 
gauze.  The  electric  fans  were  of  the  variety  associated  in 
one's  mind  with  ice-cream  "parlours";  two  broad  blades 
attached  to  the  ceiling  in  the  middle  of  the  room.  They 
had  been  installed  in  both  the  dining-room  and  sola — or 
sitting-room — and  it  was  not  possible  in  either  room  to  see 
anything  else.  These  fans  were  the  subject  of  endless  con- 
tention between  Mr.  Taft  and  me,  but  I  gave  in  and  left 
them  to  continue  their  mission  of  saving  his  life.  He  says 
yet  that  I  often  acknowledged  on  hot  nights  that  he  was 
right  about  them,  but  I  never  did. 

My  husband  had  secured  his  house  staff  in  Hongkong, 
through  the  kind  offices  of  Admiral  Dewey's  servant,  Ah 
Man,  as  I  have  already  written,  but  being  new  to  the  ways 
of  the  Oriental,  he  was  destined  very  quickly  to  gather  some 
unique  experience.  There  were  four  of  them:  the  cook, 
the  number  one  boy,  the  number  two  boy  and  the  laundry- 
man.  The  laundryman  was  Mr.  Taft's  own  inspiration. 
The  Filipino  laundryman,  he  had  heard,  takes  the  linen 
of  his  master's  household  down  to  some  stream,  preferably 
the  shallows  of  the  Pasig,  and  hammers  it  into  ribbons  on 
smooth  rocks  which  he  uses  for  washboard  purposes.  Then 
he  spreads  the  articles  on  the  grass  to  dry,  and  the  conse- 
quences were  found,  not  infrequently,  to  be  a  bad  outbreak 
on  the  master's  skin  of  what  is  known  as  "adobe  itch,"  a 
troublesome  disease.  So  Mr.  Taft  had  engaged  a  Chinese 
laundryman  and  had  sent  back  to  San  Francisco  for  tubs 
and  washboards  and  wringers  and  all  the  necessary  para- 
phernalia, and  had  installed  an  up-to-date  laundry  in  his 
own  house,  where  the  orders  were  to  boil  the  clothes  and 
hang  them  on  a  line.  It  worked  perfectly,  though  it  did 
take  the  Chinaman  from  the  wilds  of  Shanghai  some 

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time  to  learn  the  uses  of  the  various  modern  implements. 

In  Manila  the  marketing  is  usually  done  by  the  cook,  but 
in  our  household  this  duty  was  delegated  to  the  number  one 
boy.  One  day  the  cook  and  the  number  two  boy  came  to 
Mr.  Taft  with  the  announcement  that  they  could  not  re- 
main in  the  house  with  number  one  boy;  that  number  one 
boy  was  a  thief;  that  he  smoked  opium  all  the  time  he  was 
supposed  to  be  marketing;  and  that  he  was  a  bad  Chinaman 
generally.  Mr.  Taft  had  always  given  number  one  boy 
the  money  with  which  to  pay  the  other  boys'  salaries  and 
the  cash  market  charges,  so  he  said  to  the  cook: 

"Has  number  one  always  paid  your  wages'?" 

"Yes,"  said  the  cook,  with  an  eloquent  shrug  of  his  shoul- 
ders, "just  my  wages  and  nothing  more." 

This  meant,  of  course,  that  number  one  boy  was  commit- 
ting the  unforgivable  sin  of  not  dividing  the  "squeeze." 

There  is  no  use  going  into  what  "squeeze"  means  in  the 
Orient.  It  may  come  partly  out  of  the  master's  pocket 
and  partly  out  of  the  pockets  of  the  tradesmen;  nobody 
knows.  But  the  housekeeper  soon  learns  that  she  gains 
nothing  by  trying  to  circumvent  the  system  in  doing  the 
marketing  herself.  The  "squeeze"  works,  no  matter  who 
does  the  buying,  and  it  soon  comes  to  be  recognised  as  a 
legitimate  part  of  household  expenses.  The  only  thing 
that  one  can  do  is  to  make  a  complaint  when  it  becomes 
too  heavy. 

It  seems  to  have  been  very  heavy  in  my  husband's  es- 
tablishment, and  investigation  proved  to  him  that  it  was 
necessary  to  let  number  one  go,  so  when  I  arrived  there  were 
just  the  two  upstairs  servants,  the  cook  and  number  two, 
who  had  been  promoted  to  the  proud  position  of  number 
one. 

I  went  immediately  to  work  to  order  my  household  as  I 
always  had  been  used  to  doing,  and  there's  where  I  began 
to  get  my  experience  of  the  Oriental  character.  My  cook 

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A    TYPICAL    PHILIPPINE    RIVER    SCEXE    AXD    SOME    FILIPINO 
LAUNDRY    WORK 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

was  a  wrinkled  old  Chinaman  who  looked  as  if  he  had  con- 
cealed behind  his  beady  little  eyes  a  full  knowledge  of  all 
the  mysteries  of  the  East,  to  say  nothing  of  its  vague  phi- 
losophies and  opium  visions.  He  called  me  "Missy"  and 
was  most  polite,  but  in  all  the  essentials  he  was  a  graven 
image.  He  was  an  unusually  good  cook,  though  he  did 
exactly  as  he  pleased,  and  seemed  to  look  upon  my  feeble 
efforts  at  the  direction  of  affairs  with  a  tolerant  sort  of  in- 
difference. He  would  listen  to  my  instructions  most  re- 
spectfully, carefully  repeat  after  me  the  nice  menus  I  de- 
vised, say,  "yes,  Missy,"  then  return  to  his  kitchen  and  cook 
whatever  suited  his  fancy. 

It  took  me  sometime  to  get  used  to  this,  but  I  came  to 
value  him  highly,  especially  when  I  learned  that  he  had, 
finely  developed,  one  glorious  characteristic  of  his  kind. 
He  could  make  something  out  of  nothing.  If  Mr.  Taft 
sent  word  at  six  o'clock,  or  even  as  late  as  seven,  that  he 
had  invited  four  or  five  of  his  associates  to  dinner  to  con- 
tinue a  discussion  begun  earlier  in  the  day,  or  for  some  other 
reason,  I  had  only  to  tell  Ah  Sing  that  there  would  be  seven 
or  eight  instead  of  three  at  dinner,  and  a  perfect  dinner 
would  be  served.  Where  he  got  his  supplies  with  which  to 
meet  these  sudden  demands  I  never  knew.  I  learned  to  ac- 
cept the  gifts  of  the  gods  without  comment,  which  is  the  only 
thing  to  do  in  the  East. 

Ah  Sing  was  particularly  proud  of  his  sweets.  He  loved 
to  make  puddings  and  pies  with  lavish  decorations  upon 
them,  though  none  of  the  family  cared  much  for  such  deli- 
cacies. One  evening,  shortly  after  my  arrival,  I  was  giving 
quite  a  formal  dinner  party;  I  had,  as  usual,  given  the 
cook  a  menu  well  thought  out  and,  I  believed,  wholly  ap- 
propriate to  the  occasion  and  the  climate.  For  a  sweet 
I  had  ordered  an  ice  with  some  small  cakes,  and  I  was 
pleasantly  surprised  to  see  them  duly  served.  But  just 
as  the  party  was  about  to  rise  from  the  table  and  go  out 

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on  the  verandah  for  coffee,  in  came  Mr.  Number  One  Boy 
with  a  ponderous,  steaming  bread-pudding,  all  covered  with 
coloured  ornaments,  which  he  smilingly  displayed  for  the 
benefit  of  the  astonished  party.  It  had  to  be  served,  of 
course,  and  I  felt  that  my  explanations  regarding  Ah  Sing's 
eccentricities  didn't  make  much  of  an  impression. 

Over  none  of  the  servants  did  I  exercise  the  control  I 
thought  to  be  necessary,  but  this  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
for  three  months  they  had  been  obeying  the  master;  the 
master  had  paid  them  their  wages,  and  to  the  master  they 
looked  for  all  orders.  It  took  me  sometime  to  discover  this, 
but  when  I  did  I  began  to  handle  household  accounts  with- 
out assistance. 

It  was  about  the  end  of  the  typhoon  season  and  the  pre- 
dictions were  that  there  would  be  no  more  heavy  storms. 
But  it  began  to  rain  and  blow  one  day  with  rather  more 
force  than  I  had  ever  seen  before,  and  I  was  told  that  we 
were  in  the  midst  of  a  typhoon.  "Oh,  well,"  I  thought, 
"if  this  is  all  I  don't  see  why  there  is  so  much  talk  about 
it."  It  was  just  a  very  hard  and  very  persistent  storm. 
When  I  began  to  think  it  was  about  time  for  it  to  have 
blown  itself  out  I  was  awakened  one  night  by  what  seemed 
to  me  to  be  the  bombardment  of  heavy  artillery.  My  bed 
was  shaking  under  me,  the  house  was  swaying,  and  the  noise 
was  terrifying.  I  jumped  up  with  an  instant  idea  of  in- 
surrectos,  and  a  feeling  that  I  must  meet  the  situation  on 
my  feet;  then  I  realised,  at  once,  that  it  was  the  typhoon. 
It  was  as  if  all  the  winds  that  had  blown  for  two  days  had 
gathered  themselves  together  and  were  hurling  themselves 
in  one  blast  upon  us.  I  reached  for  the  electric  switch,  but 
there  were  no  lights;  I  turned  the  button  time  and  again; 
nothing  happened.  I  fumbled  for  matches  all  over  my 
room  and  could  find  none.  My  nerves  were  just  at  the  cry- 
ing out  point  when  my  door  was  thrown  open  and  in  rushed 
Maria,  holding  aloft  a  glimmering  candle. 

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She  was  shaking  with  fright. 

"Nellie,"  she  exclaimed,  "I  just  can't  stand  it  any  longer ! 
Do  let's  find  everything  there  is  to  light  and  call  Will  and 
sit  out  in  the  sola.  Heaven  only  knows  what's  going  to 
happen !" 

We  searched  around  and  found  some  more  candles;  then 
I  went  to  call  my  husband.  He  was  sleeping  as  soundly  as 
if  nothing  at  all  were  happening.  I  shook  him  and  called 
him  and  shook  him  again.  I  thought  he  never  would  wake 
up,  but  finally  he  did,  and  just  then  I  heard  the  crash  of  a 
tree  blowing  down  in  the  garden,  while  the  floor  seemed  to 
heave  under  my  feet. 

"What's  the  matter'?"  asked  my  sleepy  husband. 

"Will,  there's  an  awful  storm.  Please  come  out  in  the 
sola  and  sit  with  Maria  and  me." 

"All  right,"  he  said,  and  slowly  got  himself  into  an  all- 
enveloping  dressing  gown. 

We  huddled  ourselves  in  chairs  in  the  big  hallway  and  sat 
listening.  Rain  always  comes  with  the  wind  in  typhoons 
and  the  dash  of  water  against  the  windows  and  the  sides  of 
the  house  was  deafening.  But  the  noise  was  suddenly 
punctuated  by  a  gentle  snore.  Mr.  Taft  had  settled  him- 
self back  in  his  chair  and  gone  quietly  to  sleep.  Maria's 
nerves  were  on  edge;  without  a  word  she  jumped  up  and 
shook  her  tired-out  brother-in-law  most  vigorously,  crying 
above  the  roar  of  the  storm : 

"Will  Taft,  what  do  you  think  we  waked  you  up  for? 
You  can't  go  back  to  sleep.  We  want  you  to  stay  awake 
and  comfort  us !" 

"All  right,  Maria,"  said  he,  with  the  utmost  good  nature ; 
whereupon  he  sat  up,  changed  his  position  to  one  more  com- 
fortable, and  proceeded  to  lapse  again  into  peaceful  slum- 
ber. 

The  next  morning  Maria  and  I  drove  down  through  the 
town  to  see  the  effects  of  the  typhoon.  Three  trees  were 

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uprooted  in  our  own  garden,  and  across  the  street  a  house 
was  flattened  out.  Groups  of  Filipinos  stood  here  and 
there  talking  and  gesticulating  in  their  usual  manner,  but 
nobody  seemed  unduly  excited.  We  saw  many  houses  un- 
roofed, and  once  in  a  while  we  met  a  native  with  a  piece 
of  nipa  or  tin  roofing  balanced  on  his  head,  quietly  carry- 
ing it  back  where  it  belonged. 

We  drove  down  through  the  Escolta  and  into  the  crowded 
Tondo  district  beyond,  and  there  we  suddenly  found  our- 
selves hub-deep  in  a  flood.  The  below-the-sea-level  quar- 
ters were  under  several  feet  of  water,  and  we  got  a  sudden 
revelation  as  to  why  all  the  nipa  houses  are  built  on  such 
high  and  unsightly  stilts.  Crowds  of  Filipinos  were  pad- 
dling through  the  flood,  most  of  them  carrying  some  part 
of  a  house,  or  other  belonging,  and  nearly  all  of  them  play- 
ing and  splashing  like  pleased  children.  Bancas — long 
canoes  from  the  river — were  plying  from  house  to  house  as 
if  it  were  an  everyday  affair  and  conditions  were  quite  nor- 
mal. 

I  had  heard  a  great  deal  about  the  severity  of  typhoons, 
but  as  I  had  passed  a  whole  season  in  the  East  and  had 
crossed  the  China  Sea  during  the  typhoon  season  without 
encountering  one,  I  began  rather  to  scoff  at  the  general  fear 
of  them.  But  I  never  did  after  that;  when  anybody  said 
typhoon  I  knew  exactly  what  it  meant.  The  water  sub- 
sided rapidly  and  in  a  day  or  two  Manila  showed  few  signs 
of  the  fury  which  had  passed,  but  for  several  days  the  Com- 
mission continued  to  receive  reports  of  the  damage  done 
and  the  lives  lost  throughout  the  surrounding  country.  It 
was  the  worst  and  the  last  storm  of  that  year. 

When  we  arrived  in  Manila  we  found  the  social  atmos- 
phere somewhat  peculiar.  Members  of  our  own  party,  who 
had  crossed  the  Pacific  on  the  Hancock,  welcomed  us  at 
once  with  dinners  and  teas  and  other  kinds  of  parties;  also 
a  number  of  Army  ladies  called  without  delay,  and  our  cir- 

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cle  broadened  rapidly.  But  General  MacArthur,  who  was 
the  Military  Governor  and  lived  at  Malacanan  Palace,  did 
not  entertain  anybody  except  a  select  military  circle.  He 
sent  an  aide  with  cards,  of  course,  and  he  accepted  our  in- 
vitations to  dinner,  but  that  was  all.  Not  that  we  minded, 
except  that  it  made  it  rather  awkward  and  added  something 
to  the  "feeling"  that  all  was  not  well  between  the  Army 
and  the  new  civil  government. 

The  Commission  had  been  for  three  months  busily  en- 
gaged in  investigating  conditions,  as  directed  by  the  Presi- 
dent, before  they  assumed  any  authority,  and  then  they 
acted  with  no  haste.  We  were  impatiently  awaiting  news 
from  America  with  regard  to  the  Presidential  election.  It 
was  thought  to  be  futile  to  take  any  definite  steps  toward 
the  establishment  of  local  governments  and  the  inaugura- 
tion of  far-reaching  reforms  until  the  status  of  Ameri- 
can control  should  be  settled.  Mr.  Bryan  had  promised 
political  independence,  and  if  Mr.  Bryan  were  elected  all 
the  Commission's  plans  would  go  for  naught. 

The  provincial  and  municipal  codes  were  completed; 
certain  important  questions  between  the  Church  and  the 
people  were  being  considered,  and  many  open  sessions  were 
held  for  discussion,  with  the  purpose  of  advising  the  people 
that  they  would  be  listened  to  by  a  civil  government.  In 
the  meantime  the  insurrectos  were  keeping  things  lively  in 
a  guerilla  warfare  with  small  squads  of  greatly  harassed 
and  very  much  disgusted  American  soldiers.  There  were 
occasional  rumours  about  uprisings  in  Manila — when  the 
guard  at  our  gate  would  be  doubled — but  Mr.  Taft  assured 
us  that  Manila  was  as  safe  as  New  York  or  Chicago  and 
we  really  had  few  fears. 

General  MacArthur  continued  to  resent  the  coming  of  the 
Commission  and  to  consider  himself  personally  humiliated 
by  their  being  appointed  to  divide  his  power.  He  was 
still  in  command  of  about  seventy  thousand  men  and  had 

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the  general  executive  control  of  a  large  civil  force,  but  this, 
apparently,  was  not  enough.  The  tone  he  adopted  in  his 
correspondence  with  the  Commission  kept  them  in  a  con- 
stant state  of  controlled  anger.  They  were  very  careful 
in  return  to  observe  every  courtesy  and  to  manifest  an  ear- 
nest desire  for  harmony  and  co-operation.  They  were 
tremendously  interested  in  their  problems  and  wanted  much 
to  succeed,  but  their  efforts  at  conciliation  did  little  good. 
The  General  objected  to  almost  every  suggestion  put  for- 
ward by  them  and  did  not  hesitate  to  tell  them  in  plain 
words  that  he  did  not  welcome  advice  from  them  concerning 
military  or  any  other  matters.  It  was  really  a  very  difficult 
situation. 

The  Commission  thought  General  MacArthur  took  an 
entirely  erroneous  view  of  the  attitude  of  the  Philippine 
people  in  general,  and  that  in  everything  he  did  he  moved 
with  an  exasperating  slowness.  They  wanted  a  large  na- 
tive constabulary  which  they  knew  could  successfully  be 
organised  and  relied  upon  to  render  great  assistance  in  the 
pacification  of  the  Islands.  He  did  not  agree  with  them 
and  held  the  matter  up  for  many  months.  He  was  not 
in  sympathy  with  any  move  they  made,  and  his  greatest 
cross  was  that  he  had  no  power  to  veto  their  legislation. 
He  saw  military  dangers  in  all  manner  of  things  without 
being  able  to  state  just  what  they  were,  and  he  was  always 
calling  for  more  troops,  while  the  Commission  was  enter- 
taining hopes  that  it  would  not  be  a  great  length  of  time 
before  a  large  part  of  the  troops  already  there  could  be  re- 
called. I  find  my  husband  writing  at  this  time: 

"General  MacArthur,  knowing  that  we  differ  from  him 
as  to  the  condition  of  things  in  the  Islands,  makes  it  a  point 
to  send  me  an  account  of  each  disaster  as  if  it  vindicated 
his  view.  This  is  not  the  spirit  of  a  man  who  is  likely  to 
succeed  in  giving  energy  to  a  campaign  which  will  bring 
about  successful  results,  but  the  matters  will  solve  them- 

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selves  in  spite  of  his  slowness  of  movement  and  lack  of  en- 
thusiasm. .  .  . 

"The  minute  the  policy  with  respect  to  these  Islands  is 
settled  by  Bryan's  defeat  and  the  election  of  McKinley,  the 
leniency  which  has  been  almost  too  great  towards  ladrones 
and  these  murdering  generals  will  have  to  be  changed. 
They  must  be  given  an  opportunity  to  come  in  and  if  they 
do  not  come  in  in  a  short  time,  they  ought  to  be  deported 
from  the  country  and  sent  to  Guam.  This  will  have  an 
effect  so  healthy  that  a  short  time  will  see  accomplished 
what  we  desire.  There  will  be  a  great  awakening  for  some 
of  these  men  who  have  come  to  rely  on  the  supineness  of 
the  Americans,  and  who  do  not  understand  that  we  can  be 
severe  when  we  choose.  .  .  . 

"It  was  General  Otis  who  inaugurated  the  plan  of  laugh- 
ing at  the  insurrection,  of  capturing  men  and  letting  them 
go,  and  the  result  is  that  they  have  laughed  at  us,  but  with 
a  little  tightening  of  the  reins  their  laugh  will  cease.  .  .  . 

"They  dread  deportation  more  than  anything  else  and 
I  have  written  to  Secretary  Root  and  asked  him  to  have  a 
prison  constructed  at  Guam  to  which  we  may  send  those 
whom  we  think  worthy  of  a  less  punishment  than  hanging. 
The  insurrection  must  be  suppressed  for  the  benefit  of  the 
United  States  and,  still  more,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Fili- 
pino people.  The  lenient  methods,  having  been  tried  for 
two  years,  must  be  changed  to  those  more  severe.  .  .  . 

"The  insurrection,  such  as  it  is  now,  is  nothing  more 
than  a  conspiracy  against  the  sovereignty  of  the  United 
States  sustained  by  murder  and  assassination  of  Filipinos 
by  Filipinos.  .  .  . 

"MacArthur  is  drawing  the  reins  a  little  tighter,  though 
not  as  tight  as  we  think  he  ought  to  draw  them,  and  he 
has  now  imprisoned  about  fifteen  hundred  insurgents. 
There  have  been  a  great  many  arrests  made  in  Manila, 
which  has  been  the  head  centre  of  the  insurrection  in  the 

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way  of  raising  money.  I  should  think  there  have  been  fifty 
or  sixty  insurgent  officers  arrested  in  the  city.  .  .  . 

"I  sent  a  telegram  to  the  Secretary  of  War  on  Sunday 
night  which  was  signed  by  Buencamino  and  other  prominent 
Filipinos,  about  a  dozen  of  them,  in  which  they  spoke  out 
with  emphasis  about  the  continuation  of  the  insurrection. 
They  propose  to  organise  what  they  call  a  counter-revolu- 
tion ;  that  is,  they  mean  they  will  organise  a  military  move- 
ment among  the  Filipinos  against  Filipinos.  They  are  get- 
ting very  tired  and  weary  of  this  murder  and  assassination 
policy  without  which  the  insurrection  could  not  last  a 
week.  .  .  . 

"You  could  hardly  believe  the  closeness  with  which  the 
Presidential  matters  are  being  watched  by  the  Filipinos,  and 
how  they  follow  the  speeches  made  against  the  Republican 
cause.  General  Smith,  away  down  on  the  island  of  Negros, 
told  me  he  had  found  speeches  by  Hoar  and  Bryan,  and 
other  anti-expansionists  and  anti-imperialists,  in  the  most 
remote  mountains  of  his  district.  .  .  . 

"Every  one  is  waiting  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  should 
Bryan  be  elected  there  might  be  some  riotous  demonstra- 
tion among  the  natives.  The  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  Senor  Arellano,  has  made  arrangements,  should 
Bryan  be  elected,  to  leave  the  islands  three  days  after  the 
announcement.  He  is  the  ablest  Filipino  in  the  islands,  by 
far  the  best  lawyer  and  a  man  of  the  highest  probity.  He 
says  that  much  as  he  is  interested  in  the  success  and  pros- 
perity of  his  fellow-citizens,  he  knows  that  they  are  utterly 
incapable  of  self-government  and  should  the  guiding  hand 
of  the  United  States  be  withdrawn,  chaos,  conscription  and 
corruption  would  follow  inevitably.  ..." 

I  have  taken  these  excerpts  at  random  from  my  husband's 
letters  to  his  brother  during  the  months  of  September  and 
October,  1900,  and  they  serve  to  show  the  situation  which 
existed  and  will  illustrate  the  fact  that  we  were  living  in 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  .YEARS 

interesting  times.  But  they  deal  only  with  the  insurrec- 
tion, while  the  main  body  of  his  correspondence  shows  that 
the  Commissioners  were  engaged  upon  legislative  matters  of 
the  gravest  import  which  would  be  rendered  entirely  super- 
fluous should  Mr.  Bryan  be  elected  and  his  announced  poli- 
cies be  carried  into  effect.  In  that  event  they  proposed 
immediately  to  turn  matters  back  to  the  military  govern- 
ment and  withdraw,  leaving  Mr.  Bryan  to  face  the  prob- 
lems which  they  knew  he  would  soon  discover  had  to  be 
dealt  with  from  the  standpoint  of  constructive  statesman- 
ship. 

In  the  meantime  the  peace  movement  was  rapidly  gain- 
ing adherents  among  the  people  in  spite  of  the  still  active 
insurrectos^  or  rather,  because  of  them  and  their  methods; 
while  everybody  seemed  to  welcome  the  change  from  a 
strictly  military  to  a  partially  civil  government. 

The  popularity  of  the  Commission,  as  offering  a  change 
from  the  strictness  of  military  rule,  was  becoming  every 
day  more  marked.  Juan  de  Juan,  a  Spaniard,  and  editor 
of  the  lively  organ  El  Progreso,  which  was  always  in  oppo- 
sition to  anything  American,  said  that  on  the  first  of  Sep- 
tember when  the  Commission  began  to  exercise  its  author- 
ity, he  intended  to  devote  the  whole  front  page  of  his  paper 
to  just  three  words:  "Gracias  a  Dios," — Thanks  to  God! 
Juan  de  Juan  was  a  good  deal  of  a  Bohemian  and  really 
cared  little  what  happened  so  long  as  he  got  a  sensation  out 
of  it.  September  first  came  and  went,  and  I  don't  remem- 
ber whether  he  made  good  this  extravagant  threat  or  not. 
I  presume  he  didn't  for,  though  I  had  been  in  Manila  less 
than  a  week,  I  surely  would  have  remembered. 

After  the  Commission  had  been  in  power  for  just  a  month, 
and  while  the  excited  interest  in  events  in  the  United  States 
was  at  its  height,  Juan  de  Juan  broke  out  in  a  characteristic 
Spanish  editorial,  a  translation  of  which  has  been  preserved. 
We  had  entertained  Juan  de  Juan  at  dinner,  and  he  evi- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

dently  was  impressed.  We  made  it  a  rule  from  the  begin- 
ning that  neither  politics  nor  race  should  influence  our  hos- 
pitality in  any  way,  and  we  came  thus  to  have  a  very  wide 
and  diverse  acquaintance.  The  editorial  in  El  Progreso 
gives  such  a  curious  picture  of  attitude  and  conditions  in 
general,  as  well  as  of  my  husband,  my  family  and  my  home, 
that  I  think  I  must  quote  it, — at  least  in  part.  It  is  headed 
simply : 

SE^OR  TAFT 

The  most  uncompromising  jingoes;  the  rabid  partisans  of  mili- 
tarism, as  well  as  the  men  of  democratic  sentiments  who  consider 
the  occupation  of  -the  Philippines  as  an  odious  Csesarism,  respect 
and  venerate  the  President  of  the  Civil  Commission,  whose  sur- 
name serves  as  the  caption  of  these  lines.  Uprightness  and  bon- 
hommie  always  demand  recognition. 

Before  the  Hancock,  bearing  this  statesman,  had  anchored  in 
Manila  Bay,  the  echo  of  his  reputation  and  the  radiations  of  the 
brilliant  aureole  which  his  success  in  the  judiciary  of  his  country 
had  imposed  upon  him — and  we  underline  the  word  imposed  be- 
cause the  characteristic  trait  of  Mr.  Taft  is  his  modesty — had 
reached  the  Philippines.  The  Filipinos  awaited  him  with  the  same 
pleasing  curiosity  with  which  a  child  opens  a  toy  with  a  concealed 
surprise,  and  the  foreigners  as  the  incarnation  of  those  American 
patriarchal,  democratic  ideas  with  which  Castelar  portrayed  to  his 
followers  the  country  of  Lincoln. 

Behind  that  spacious  brow  of  the  thinker,  between  his  liberal 
tendencies  and  the  incomparable  exactions  of  the  enormous  bur- 
dens which  his  country  undertook  in  Paris,  fierce  struggles  are 
waging.  The  President  of  the  American  Civil  Commission  has 
broad  shoulders,  but  the  weight  of  a  people  whom  patriotism  en- 
dows with  the  strength  of  a  colossus  is  very  great. 

We  must  concede  to  all  the  leading  authorities  whom  America 
has  sent  to  the  Philippines  the  trait  of  being  industrious.  We 
know  that  General  Otis  worked  more  than  twelve  hours  a  day; 
MacArthur,  that  Daban  of  the  American  Army  through  the  ra- 
pidity of  his  advancement,  follows  the  same  course  as  his  prede- 
cessor, and  Mr.  Taft  leaves  his  house  every  morning  at  eight  and, 
as  unostentatiously  as  a  clerk,  proceeds  to  become  a  part  of  his  chair 
in  the  Ayuntamiento.  There  his  first  occupation  is  glancing  over 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

the  American  press,  and  what  is  of  interest  in  the  Spanish  papers. 

Then  the  show  begins.  Paterno,  Macabulos,  Montenegro, 
some  envoy  from  Cebu,  for  example,  who  come  to  sound  him,  as  the 
slang  saying  goes,  arrive.  Mr.  Taft  has  the  same  respectful  smile 
for  all,  the  same  courtesy,  and  addresses  them  all  in  the  same  terms, 
which  his  athletic  Secretary,  Mr.  Fergusson,  repeats  in  Spanish 
with  the  gravity  of  a  Sphinx  and  the  fidelity  of  a  phonograph. 
When  the  matter  warrants  it,  Mr.  Pepperman,  the  chief  stenog- 
rapher of  the  Commission,  enters  the  office  and  proceeds  to  take 
notes  of  the  interview. 

In  this  way  the  Americans  are  forming  a  luminous  record  which, 
united  to  what  were  our  archives,  which  they  preserve  through  the 
terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  will  guide  them  well  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  Philippines. 

Later  Mr.  Taft  becomes  engulfed  in  the  examination  of  the  bills 
which  the  other  members  of  the  Commission  present  for  him  to 
study;  he  discusses  their  text  with  his  colleagues,  listens  to  all 
their  observations,  and  judging  them  by  a  standard  most  favorable 
to  the  interests  of  the  Philippines,  the  most  liberal  within  the  in- 
structions from  Washington — it  is  proper  to  say  that  Mr.  Taft  is 
the  most  democratic  element  of  the  Commission — he  expresses  his 
opinion,  generous,  calm  and  noble,  which  assuredly,  in  view  of 
his  personal  prestige,  must  carry  great  weight  in  .the  framing  of 
the  bills,  whose  execution  is  entrusted  to  the  Military  governor. 

To  dissipate  the  gloomy  smoke  of  the  conflagration,  to  still  the 
groans  of  those  who  fall  in  this  immense  expoliarium  into  which 
fatality  has  converted  the  Philippine  fields,  is  the  mission  which 
the  men  composing  the  American  Commission  desire  to  bring  to  a 
successful  issue.  To  make  peace.  For  this  they  came,  and  if 
fortune  does  not  reserve  for  them  the  happy  chance  of  accomplish- 
ing so  beautiful  an  ideal,  they  will  retire,  and  the  factor  they 
represent  in  the  problem  to  be  solved,  with  its  distinguishing  traits 
of  civil  moderation,  will  be  substituted  as  a  system  that  has  failed, 
by  another,  wherein  the  martial  power  will  prevail  over  political 
wisdom. 

As  General  MacArthur  undoubtedly  spends  many  hours  over 
maps  of  the  Philippines,  Mr.  Taft  also  often  rests  his  gaze  on  a 
map  covering  one  of  the  walls  of  his  office,  tracing,  in  mente,  a 
railroad  which,  crossing  the  island,  shall  drown  with  the  cheery 
whistle  of  the  locomotive  the  moans  of  the  victims  of  war.  Thus 
would  Mr.  Taft  like  to  pacify  the  Philippines. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

It  is  now  one  o'clock  p.  M.  and  Mr.  Taft  is  at  home,  where  this 
personage  stands  out  more  boldly  before  us,  since  the  trials  through 
which  the  country  is  passing  do  not  permit  us  yet  to  judge  him 
politically. 

The  President  of  the  Commission,  in  his  private  life,  has  many 
points  of  similarity  with  Count  de  Caspe,  that  stainless  gentleman 
the  Filipinos  still  recall  with  veneration.  Excepting  the  brilli- 
ancy of  those  splendid  entertainments  with  which  he  endeavoured 
to  blot  out  all  racial  differences  by  mingling  in  fraternal  embrace 
Filipinos  and  Spaniards  at  the  Malacanan  villa,  there  ordinarily 
reigned  in  the  governor's  mansion  the  placid  silence  of  the  home 
of  a  well-to-do  retired  merchant.  The  Countess,  who  on  Thurs- 
days did  the  honours  of  her  salon  with  exquisite  tact,  was  during 
the  other  days  of  the  week  a  housekeeper  who  did  not  disdain  to 
go  to  a  grocery  store  to  make  purchases,  or  to  look  over  the  laun- 
dry list. 

The  same  thing  happens  in  the  elegant  chalet  at  Malate  where 
Mr.  Taft  lives.  This  is  a  quiet  and  peaceful  home,  a  temple 
erected  to  the  affections,  under  whose  roof  Mr.  Taft  rests  some 
hours  after  the  efforts  which  his  political  work  demands. 

His  table  reflects  his  modest  character.  Four  courses,  two  kinds 
of  fruit,  a  dessert  and  sauterne  compose  the  menu  of  the  luncheon 
where  Mr.  Taft  is  always  accompanied  by  some  guest,  either  Fili- 
pino, American  or  Spanish.  During  the  meal  politics  are  ban- 
ished; if  the  guest  is  a  Filipino  who  speaks  French  Mrs.  Taft 
interrogates  him  on  the  customs  of  the  archipelago;  if  he  is  Span- 
ish, as  to  the  toilettes  worn  in  Manila  by  the  ladies  at  the  most 
brilliant  receptions  held  here;  as  to  the  favourite  musical  composer 
of  the  Hispano-Filipino  society;  and  this  conversation  increases  in 
attraction  when  Miss  Herron,  sister-in-law  of  Mr.  Taft  and  the 
incarnation  of  the  modern  woman's  education,  takes  part  therein. 
Miss  Herron  speaks  French  correctly,  has  travelled  much,  and 
journeyed  through  Spain  like  an  intelligent  tourist.  The  archi- 
tectural lace-work  of  the  Alhambra  charmed  her,  and  she  went  into 
ecstasies  over  the  orange  blossoms  growing  along  the  banks  of  the 
Guadalquivir.  With  what  Miss  Herron  was  not  in  harmony,  and 
she  berates  them  like  an  unsubsidised  journalist,  were  the  Spanish 
railroads.  Miss  Herron  is  right. 

The  children,  Robert,  about  eleven  years  old;  Helen,  a  girl  of 
nine,  and  Charles,  a  baby  of  three,  who  is  the  king  of  the  house- 
hold:— the  McKinley,  as  it  were,  of  this  patriarchal  republic — do 
not  come  to  the  table;  they  eat  with  the  governess. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

After  the  meal,  in  the  fine  gallery  overlooking  the  sea,  sipping 
the  coffee,  Mr.  Taft  talks  of  the  education  of  his  children,  of  the 
difficulties  met  in  the  Philippines  in  the  solution  of  so  interesting 
a  problem;  and  his  wife  converses  of  the  charitable  work  she  ex- 
pects to  undertake  when  she  shall  have  assumed  a  more  permanent 
place  in  the  Archipelago,  which  Magellan  discovered  for  Spain, 
and  which,  through  a  horrible  fatality,  is  no  longer  ours.  Politics 
are  also  eschewed  on  the  gallery. 

Needless  to  say  this  extraordinary  editorial  afforded  us 
all  boundless  amusement;  we  began  to  caution  Mr.  Taft 
frequently  about  the  careful  preservation  of  his  "aureole" 
and  Maria  and  I  decided  that  we  would  have  to  walk  warily 
indeed,  if  we  were  destined  to  be  so  minutely  reported. 


117 


CHAPTER  VI 

A    STRANGE    ENVIRONMENT 

IN  the  Far  East  one  meets  certain  expressions  the  significance 
of  which  may  be  described  as  adamantine.  Each  represents 
a  racial  attitude  against  which  it  is  useless  to  contend.  In 
Japan  it  is  the  equivalent  of  it  cannot  be  helped;  a  verbal 
shrug  of  the  shoulders  with  which  the  Japanese  tosses  off  all 
minor  and  many  grave  annoyances.  "Masqui"  down  the 
China  coast,  has  the  same  import,  but  with  the  added  mean- 
ing of  "what  difference  does  it  make."  In  the  Philippines 
the  phrase  which  must  be  met  and  which  cannot  be  overcome 
by  any  system  of  reform  is  "el  costumbre  del  pais" — the  cus- 
tom of  the  country. 

If  it  is  el  costumbre  del  pais  it  has  to  be  done  and  there  is 
nothing  more  to  be  said  about  it.  The  manana  habit — 
putting  everything  off  until  to-morrow — is,  perhaps,  to 
Americans,  the  most  annoying  of  all  the  costumbres  del  pais 
in  the  Philippines,  but  it  yields  to  pressure  much  more 
readily  than  do  many  others,  among  which  is  the  custom  of 
accumulating  parientes;  that  is,  giving  shelter  on  a  master's 
premises  to  every  kind  and  degree  of  relative  who  has  no 
other  place  to  live.  This  is,  I  suppose,  a  survival  of  an  old 
patriarchal  arrangement  whereby  everybody  with  the  re- 
motest or  vaguest  claim  upon  a  master  of  a  household  gath- 
ered upon  that  master's  doorstep,  so  to  speak,  and  camped 
there  for  life. 

In  my  first  encounter  with  this  peculiarity  of  my  environ- 
ment I  thought  there  was  a  large  party  going  on  in  my 
cockero's  quarters;  and  an  indiscriminate  sort  of  party  it 
seemed  to  be.  There  were  old  men  and  old  women,  young 
men  and  young  women,  many  small  children  and  a  few  babes 
in  arms.  We  had  only  Chinese  servants  in  the  house,  but 
the  stables  were  in  charge  of  Filipinos  and,  as  I  soon  discov- 

118 


(LEFT  TO  RIGHT)    GENERAL   WRIGHT,   MR.   TAFT   AND   JUDGE   IDE   AS 
PHILIPPINE    COMMISSIONERS 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

ered,  the  "party"  was  made  up  entirely  of  our  stablemen's 
f orient  es. 

I  had  a  pair  of  ponies  and  a  Victoria;  Mr.  Taft  had  his 
two  little  brown  horses  and  a  Victoria;  besides  which  there 
was  an  extra  horse  to  be  used  in  case  of  accident  to  one  of 
the  others,  as  well  as  a  pony  and  calesa  for  the  children. 
This  rather  formidable  array  was  necessary  because  we  found 
it  impossible  to  take  a  horse  out  more  than  twice  a  day,  and 
usually  not  more  than  once,  on  account  of  the  sun.  My 
ponies  were  taken  out  only  in  the  early  morning  or  the  late 
evening,  and  those  of  Mr.  Taft  had  all  they  could  do  to  take 
him  to  the  office  and  bring  him  home  twice  a  day.  Dis- 
tances were  long  and  there  were  no  street-cars  which  ran 
where  anybody  wanted  to  go. 

This  number  of  conveyances  made  a  good  many  stable- 
men necessary  and  all  of  them,  with  their  families,  lived  in 
quarters  attached  to  the  stables.  These  families  consisted 
of  fathers,  mothers,  sisters,  brothers,  uncles,  aunts,  cousins 
near  and  far  removed,  wives,  children,  grandchildren,  and  a 
few  intimate  and  needy  friends  with  their  family  ramifica- 
tions. Besides  our  three  cocheros  and  the  stable  boys,  there 
was  a  gardener  with  his  parientes,  so  it  is  no  wonder  that  on 
my  first  inspection  of  the  lower  premises  I  should  have 
thought  that  some  sort  of  festivity  was  in  progress.  I  might 
have  lived  in  Manila  twenty  years  without  being  able  to 
straighten  out  the  relationships  in  this  servant  colony;  it 
was  not  possible  to  learn  who  had  and  who  had  not  a  right 
to  live  on  the  place ;  and  my  protest  was  met  with  the  simple 
statement  that  it  was  el  costumbre  del  pais,  so  I,  perforce, 
accepted  the  situation. 

Filipino  servants  never  live  in  the  master's  residence ;  they 
never  want  to;  they  want  the  freedom  of  a  house  of  their 
own,  and  these  houses  are,  as  a  rule,  built  on  the  outer  edges 
of  the  garden,  or  compound.  I  believe  Americans  now  are 
learning  to  meet  the  pariente  habit  by  having  room  for  just 

119 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

as  many  people  as  they  need,  and  no  more.  But  those  who 
live  in  the  old  places,  with  their  ample  quarters,  still  gather 
the  clans  and  are  permitted  to  enjoy  a  most  expansive  and 
patriarchal  sensation. 

My  horses,  when  I  first  saw  them,  were  a  source  of  the 
greatest  pride.  A  beautifully  matched  pair  of  coal-black, 
stylishly-paced  and  glossy  little  stallions,  hardly  larger  than 
Shetland  ponies,  they  looked  as  if  they  had  been  washed  in 
some  sort  of  shrinking  soap  and  had  come  out  in  perfect 
condition  except  that  they  were  several  sizes  smaller  than 
they  ought  to  have  been.  These  Philippine  ponies  are 
doubtless  descendants  of  the  Arabian  horses  brought  over  by 
the  Spaniards  and  have  been  reduced  to  their  present  size 
by  the  change  of  climate  and  the  difference  in  food  and 
environment,  but  they  still  have  the  fine  lines  and  the  gen- 
eral characteristics  of  their  progenitors. 

Mr.  Taft  secured  mine  from  Batangas,  where  all  the  best 
ponies  come  from,  through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Benito 
Legarda,  the  staunchest  of  Americanist  as.  Batangas  was  a 
most  unquiet  province,  the  last,  in  fact,  to  become  pacified, 
and  Mr.  Legarda  had  to  pay  an  insurrecto  for  bringing  the 
horses  through  the  insurgent  lines  and  delivering  them  at 
Calamba,  near  Manila.  Although  he  did  not  know  their 
exact  origin  when  he  bought  them,  Mr.  Taft  said  that  if  the 
facts  became  known  he  would  be  accused,  in  certain  quarters, 
of  giving  indirect  aid  to  the  revolutionists;  but  he  wanted 
the  ponies  so  he  did  not  return  them. 

When  they  were  hitched  to  the  shining  little  Victoria 
which  had  been  built  for  them,  they  were  as  pretty  as  a  pic- 
ture and,  as  I  did  not  propose  to  have  such  a  turn-out  ruined 
by  a  couple  of  Filipinos  on  the  box  in  untidy  camisas  hang- 
ing outside  of  as  untidy  white  trousers,  I  had  made  for  my 
cochero  and  boy,  or  coachman  and  footman,  a  livery  of  white 
and  green  in  which  they  took  such  inordinate  pride  that  they 
seemed  to  grow  in  stature  and  dignity. 

120 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Maria  and  I  felt  a  sense  of  the  utmost  satisfaction  the 
first  time  we  stepped  into  this  carriage  for  a  drive  down  to 
the  Luneta  where  we  were  sure  to  see  everybody  we  knew 
and  hundreds  of  people  besides ;  but  our  vanity  was  destined 
to  be  brought  to  a  sudden  termination. 

As  we  were  driving  along  with  much  satisfaction,  a  bit 
of  paper  floated  down  alongside  the  blinkers  of  the  little 
ebony  steed  on  the  right  and  he  made  one  wild  leap  into  the 
air.  His  companion  gave  him  an  angry  nip,  and  then  the 
fight  was  on.  Maria  and  I  jumped  out,  which  was  not  diffi- 
cult in  a  low-built  Victoria,  and  no  sooner  had  we  done  so 
than  we  saw  the  complete  wreck  of  all  our  grandeur.  With 
all  the  leaping  and  plunging  and  biting  and  kicking,  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  handy  lamp-post,  the  smash-up  was  fairly  com- 
plete. Neither  of  the  ponies  was  hurt,  except  by  the  lash  of 
the  whip,  and  I  must  say  the  little  wretches  looked  rather 
funny;  like  very  pretty  and  very  bad  children,  sorry  for 
what  they  had  done.  But  their  characters  were  established 
and  they  proceeded  after  that  to  live  up  to  them.  We 
never  could  have  any  confidence  in  them  and  my  coachman 
was  the  only  person  who  could  do  anything  with  them. 
He  was  a  most  unsatisfactory  man  in  many  ways  and  used 
often  to  call  for  us  at  dinner  parties  in  a  state  of  gay  in- 
ebriety, but  we  didn't  dare  discharge  him  because  everybody 
else  in  the  stables  stood  in  awe  of  the  blacks  while  he 
seemed  greatly  to  enjoy  his  constant  and  spectacular 
struggles  with  them. 

The  Filipinos  are  a  most  temperate  people ;  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  drunkenness  among  them;  but  coachmen  seem  to 
be  an  exception  in  that  they  allow  themselves  a  sufficient 
stimulation  of  the  fiery  vino  to  make  them  drive  with  cour- 
age and  dash,  sometimes  minus  all  care  and  discretion. 
The  drivers  of  public  vehicles  seem  to  love  their  little  horses 
in  a  way;  they  are  inordinately  proud  of  a  fast  paced  or 
stylish-looking  pony;  yet  they  are,  as  a  rule,  quite  harsh  to 

121 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

them.  They  overload  them  and  overdrive  them,  and  under 
all  conditions  they  lash  them  continuously. 

No  Filipino  cochero  likes  to  have  another  cochero  pass 
him,  and  the  result  is  constant,  indiscriminate  racing,  on 
any  kind  of  street,  under  any  circumstances, — and  never 
mind  the  horse. 

My  children  were  driving  with  their  governess  to  the 
Luneta  one  evening,  when  two  carom  at  as  came  tearing 
down  behind  them,  each  driver  hurling  imprecations  at 
the  other  and  paying  no  attention  to  what  was  ahead  of 
him.  The  result  was  a  violent  collision.  The  two  caro- 
matas  went  plunging  on,  the  coclieros  not  stopping  to  see 
what  damage  they  might  have  done — which  was  very 
characteristic — and  the  children  narrowly  escaped  a  serious 
accident.  Charlie  was  hurled  out  and  fell  under  the  chil- 
dren's calesa  and  Robert  and  Helen  both  declare  they  felt 
a  sickening  jolt  as  a  wheel  passed  over  him.  The  baby, 
too,  vowed  that  the  calesa  "went  wight  over  me,  wight 
dere,"  indicating  a  vital  spot ;  but  upon  the  closest  examina- 
tion we  could  discover  nothing  more  serious  than  a  few 
bruises.  However,  it  made  us  very  much  afraid  to  trust 
the  children  out  alone. 

The  gardener  had  two  little  boys,  Jose  and  Capito,  who 
were  a  few  years  older  than  Charlie,  but  about  his  size,  and 
he  took  a  tremendous  fancy  to  them.  They  were  clad, 
simply,  in  thin  gauze — or  jusi — shirts  which  came  down  a 
little  below  their  waists,  and  I  think  Charlie  envied  them 
this  informal  attire.  He  used  to  order  them  around  in  a 
strange  mixture  of  Spanish,  Tagalog  and  English  which 
made  me  wonder  at  my  wholly  American  child ;  but  it  was 
an  effective  combination  since  he  seemed  to  have  them  com- 
pletely under  his  thumb  and,  as  he  revelled  in  his  sense  of 
power,  he  never  tired  of  playing  with  them. 

Maria  and  I  soon  adopted  the  universal  habit  of  driving 
down  to  the  Escolta  in  the  early  morning  to  do  such  shop- 

122 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

ping  as  was  necessary.  We  found  a  variety  of  interesting 
shops,  but  with  very  little  in  them  to  meet  the  ordinary  de- 
mands of  an  American  woman.  There  were  delightful 
Indian  bazaars  and  Chinese  tiendas  where  all  manner  of 
gaudy  fabrics  and  strange  oriental  articles  were  on  sale, 
while  the  Spanish  shops  upon  which  everybody  had  to  de- 
pend in  those  days,  and  which  had  such  grandly  European 
names  as  Paris-Manila  and  La  Puerta  del  Sol,  catered 
largely  to  the  Filipino  taste  for  bright  colours. 

The  Escolta  at  that  time  was  full  of  saloons,  established 
by  the  inevitable  followers  of  a  large  army,  and  the  street 
being  very  narrow  and  the  old,  rickety,  wooden  buildings 
being  very  wide  open,  the  "beery"  odour  which  pervaded 
the  atmosphere  at  all  hours  was  really  dreadful.  Mr.  Taft 
decided  that  as  long  as  this  was  the  only  street  in  town 
where  women  could  go  shopping,  the  saloons  would  have 
to  be  removed.  There  was  opposition  on  the  Commission 
to  the  bill  which  provided  for  their  banishment,  and  it  was 
fought  from  the  outside  with  great  vigour  and  bitterness, 
but  a  majority  were  in  favour  of  it,  so  it  passed,  and  the 
saloons  had  to  move.  There  has  not  been  a  saloon  on  the 
Escolta  from  that  day  to  this  and,  indeed,  they  have  ever 
since  been  under  such  satisfactory  regulation  that  there  is 
little  evidence  left  of  their  existence  in  the  city. 

I  am  afraid  it  is  going  to  be  very  difficult  to  convey  an 
adequate  picture  of  Manila  society  during  the  first  years  of 
American  occupation.  There  had  been,  in  the  old  days,  a 
really  fine  Spanish  and  rich  mestizo  society,  but  all,  or 
nearly  all,  of  the  Spaniards  had  left  the  Islands,  and  the 
mestizos  had  not  yet  decided  just  which  way  to  "lean,"  or 
just  how  to  meet  the  American  control  of  the  situation.  I 
may  say  here  that  most  of  the  educated,  high-class  Filipinos 
are  mestizo;  that  is,  of  mixed  blood.  They  may  be  Span- 
ish mestizo  or  Chinese  mestizo,  but  they  have  in  them  a 
strong  strain  of  foreign  blood.  Besides  the  Spanish-  and 

123 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Chinese-Filipinos,  there  are  a  number  of  British  mestizos 
who  are  very  interesting  people.  Mr.  Legarda,  Chief  Jus- 
tice Arellano,  Dr.  Pardo  de  Tavera  and  Mr.  Quezon,  the 
Filipino  delegate  to  the  United  States  Congress,  are  Span- 
ish mestizos,  while  Mr.  Araneta,  the  Secretary  of  Finance 
and  Justice,  as  well  as  the  Speaker  of  the  Philippine  As- 
sembly and  many  able  lawyers  and  successful  business  men 
are  of  Chinese  descent.  The  mestizos  control  practically 
all  the  wealth  of  the  Philippines,  and  their  education,  in- 
telligence and  social  standing  are  unquestioned.  It  is  the 
only  country  in  the  world  that  I  know  about — certainly  the 
only  country  in  the  Orient — where  the  man  or  woman  of 
mixed  blood  seems  to  be  regarded  as  superior  to  the  pure 
blooded  native. 

Dating  back  also  to  the  Spanish  days  was  quite  a  numer- 
ous foreign  society  consisting  of  a  few  consuls,  some  profes- 
sional men,  the  managers  of  banks  and  large  British  and 
European  mercantile  firms,  and  their  families.  The 
leaders  of  the  British  colony  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jones — 
Mr.  Jones  being  the  manager  of  the  Manila  branch  of  the 
Hongkong  and  Shanghai  Banking  Corporation.  Mrs. 
Jones,  a  very  beautiful  and  charming  woman,  gave  some 
very  elaborate  parties  during  that  first  winter.  Bank 
House,  the  residence  maintained  by  the  bank  for  its  man- 
ager in  Manila,  is  a  beautiful  place  in  Uli-Uli,  a  district 
on  the  picturesque  banks  of  the  upper  Pasig,  and  it  is  finely 
adapted  for  balls  and  large  receptions.  Then  there  were 
several  German  families  who  also  entertained  quite  lav- 
ishly, and  I  remember,  especially,  one  Austrian  exile;  in- 
deed, I  shall  never  be  able  to  forget  him  because  my  hus- 
band took  such  joy  in  pronouncing  his  name.  He  was 
Baron  von  Bosch. 

This  was  the  "set"  which  entertained  the  Commission 
most  cordially  during  our  first  season  in  Manila,  while  the 
Army  officers,  following  the  lead  of  their  Commanding 

124 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

General,  held  themselves  somewhat  aloof.  I  kept  up  a  con- 
stant round  of  parties  of  different  kinds  in  my  house,  and 
gave  a  dinner  at  least  once  a  week  at  which  were  gathered 
companies  of  a  most  interestingly  cosmopolitan  character. 
And  we  did  not  fail  to  observe  all  the  desirable  forms. 
Both  Filipinos  and  Europeans  expect  a  certain  amount  of 
ceremony  from  the  representatives  of  government  and  are 
not  at  all  impressed  by  "democratic  simplicity" ;  so  believ- 
ing in  the  adage  about  Rome  and  the  Romans,  we  did  what 
we  could.  Beside  the  spic  and  span  guard  at  the  outer 
gate  of  the  illuminated  garden,  we  always,  on  dinner  party 
nights,  stationed  coachmen,  or  other  stable  boys  disguised 
as  liveried  footmen,  on  either  side  of  the  entrance,  to  re- 
ceive guests  and  conduct  them  to  the  dressing-rooms,  and 
up  the  stairs  to  the  reception  room. 

Our  house  was  nicely  adapted  for  a  dinner  of  twelve  and 
I  usually  tried  to  confine  myself  to  that  number.  We  al- 
ways had  an  orchestra,  orchestras  being  very  plentiful  in 
Manila  where  nearly  every  native  plays  some  sort  of  in- 
strument, and  the  music  added  greatly  to  the  festive  air  of 
things,  which  was  enhanced,  too,  by  a  certain  oriental  at- 
mosphere, with  many  Japanese  lanterns  and  a  profusion  of 
potted  plants  and  great,  hanging,  natural  ferneries  and 
orchids  which  were  brought  in  from  the  forests  by  the  Fili- 
pinos and  sold  on  the  streets. 

My  husband  is  supposed  to  be  the  author  of  the  phrase : 
"our  little  brown  brothers" — and  perhaps  he  is.  It  did  not 
meet  the  approval  of  the  army,  and  the  soldiers  used  to  have 
a  song  which  they  sang  with  great  gusto  and  frequency  and 
which  ended  with  the  conciliating  sentiment :  "He  may  be 
a  brother  of  William  H.  Taft,  but  he  ain't  no  friend  of 


mine!" 


We  insisted  upon  complete  racial  equality  for  the  Fili- 
pinos, and  from  the  beginning  there  were  a  great  many  of 
them  among  our  callers  and  guests.  Their  manners  are 

125 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

models  of  real  courtesy,  and,  while  their  customs  are  not 
always  like  ours,  wherever  they  are  able  they  manifest  a 
great  willingness  to  be  conforme, — to  adapt  themselves, — 
and  their  hospitality  is  unbounded. 

I  shall  never  forget  my  first  call  from  a  Filipino  family. 
They  arrived  shortly  after  six  in  the  evening:  el  sefior,  la 
sefiora  and  four  senoritas.  We  went  through  a  solemn 
and  ceremonious  handshaking  all  around.  I  received  them 
first,  then  passed  them  on  to  my  husband  who,  in  turn, 
passed  them  on  with  a  genial  introduction  to  my  sister 
Maria.  We  had  been  sitting  on  the  verandah,  and  when  a 
semi-circle  of  chairs  had  been  arranged,  the  six  of  them  sat 
down;  el  senor  noisily  cleared  his  throat  a  couple  of  times 
while  the  ladies  calmly  folded  their  little  hands  in  their 
laps  and  assumed  an  air  of  great  repose.  It  was  as  if  they 
had  no  intention  of  taking  any  part  whatever  in  the  con- 
versation. 

El  sefior  explained  in  Spanish  that  they  were  our  near 
neighbours  and  that  they  had  called  merely  to  pay  their 
respects.  Mr.  Taft  had  been  studying  Spanish  diligently 
ever  since  he  left  the  United  States,  but  he  is  not  conspicu- 
ously gifted  as  a  linguist,  and  he  had  not  yet  waked  up — 
as  he  so  often  expressed  a  wish  that  he  might — to  find  him- 
self a  true  Castilian.  However,  his  ready  laugh  and  the 
cordiality  of  his  manners  have  always  had  a  peculiar  charm 
for  the  Filipinos,  and  he  was  able  on  this  occasion,  as  he 
was  on  many  future  ones,  to  carry  off  the  situation  very 
well.  We  all  nodded  and  smiled  and  said,  "Si  Sefior"  and 
"Si  Sefiora,"  to  long  and  no  telling  what  kind  of  speeches 
from  our  guests;  then  Maria  and  I  complimented  the  ladies 
on  their  beautifully  embroidered  camisas,  which  started 
things  off  properly.  They  praised  everything  in  sight,  and 
what  we  didn't  get  through  the  little  Spanish  we  knew,  we 
got  from  gesture  and  facial  expression.  They  got  up  and 
wandered  all  around,  feeling  of  my  Japanese  tapestries  and 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

embroideries,  breathing  long  "ahs !"  of  admiration  over  my 
gold  screens  and  pictures  and  curios,  and  acting  generally 
like  callers  who  were  being  very  well  entertained.  Then 
the  children  came  in  and  they  broke  out  afresh  in  voluble 
praise  of  them.  I  assumed  the  proper  deprecatory  mien  in 
response  to  their  laudation  of  my  children,  and  altogether  I 
felt  that  we  were  acquitting  ourselves  rather  well  in  this 
first  inter-racial  social  experience. 

But  at  the  end  of  half  an  hour  the  strain  was  getting  a 
little  severe  and  I  was  wondering  what  to  do  next,  when 
our  six  callers  arose  and  said  they  must  be  going.  I 
breathed  an  inward  sigh  of  relief  and  was  making  ready  to 
escort  them  to  the  top  of  the  stairs,  when  my  husband  cor- 
dially exclaimed: 

"Why,  no !  Porque?  Tenemos  bast  ante  tiempo.  Why 
hurry  *?' '  And — they — all — sat — down ! 

I  regretted  then  even  the  little  Spanish  Mr.  Taft  had 
learned,  though,  of  course,  he  didn't  expect  them  to  heed 
his  polite  protest.  He  knew  nothing  at  all  about  Filipino 
manners;  he  didn't  know  they  expected  to  receive  some 
sign  from  him  when  it  was  time  to  go  and  that  they  would 
consider  it  discourteous  to  go  while  he  was  urging  them  to 
stay.  He  kept  up,  without  much  assistance,  a  brave  if 
laboured  conversation,  and  the  minutes  slowly  passed. 
Our  dinner  hour  approached  and  I  darted  warning  glances 
at  him,  for  I  had  a  horrible  fear  that  he  just  might  ask 
them  to  remain  and  dine.  But  at  the  end  of  another  hour 
a  strained  expression  began  to  spread  itself  over  even  his 
face,  and  there  was  not  a  word  of  protest  from  him  when, 
at  a  quarter  past  eight,  our  little  brown  neighbours  once 
more  indicated  an  intention  of  going  home.  We  enter- 
tained Filipino  callers  nearly  every  day  after  that,  but  never 
again  did  we  urge  them  to  reconsider  their  sometimes  tardy 
decision  to  depart. 

With  regard  to  Filipino  manners  and  customs;  I  am  re- 

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minded  that  we  were  nonplussed,  though  greatly  amused 
by  the  costumbre  del  fais  which  decreed  that  some  return 
be  made  by  a  Filipino  for  any  and  all  favours  bestowed 
upon  him.  We  grew  accustomed  to  this  before  we  left 
the  Islands,  and  came  to  expect  a  few  offerings  of  sorts 
almost  any  day  in  the  week,  but  in  the  beginning  it  was 
usually  most  embarrassing. 

One  time,  soon  after  our  arrival,  a  very  loyal  American- 
ista  was  shot  down  in  the  street,  during  the  peaceful  dis- 
charge of  his  duty,  by  an  insurrecto.  His  widow,  with  her 
children,  came  into  Manila  in  a  state  of  utter  destitution, 
to  secure  some  recompense  from  the  government  for  her 
husband's  services,  and  while  her  case  was  pending  Mr. 
Taft,  in  great  pity  for  her,  sent  her  money  enough  to  live 
on.  The  next  day  the  whole  family,  from  the  wide-eyed 
boy  to  the  babe  carried  astride  the  mother's  hip,  came  to 
call  on  their  benefactor,  bringing  with  them  as  a  gift  a 
basket  containing  a  few  eggs,  some  strange  Philippine 
fruits  and  a  lot  of  sea-shells.  Mr.  Taft  was  deeply  touched, 
and  with  the  brusqueness  of  a  man  who  is  touched,  he  told 
her  he  had  given  her  the  money  to  buy  food  for  herself  and 
her  children  and  not  for  him,  and  he  refused  her  offering. 
I  know,  by  the  light  of  a  fuller  knowledge  of  the  character 
of  the  lowly  Filipino,  that  she  went  away  feeling  very 
much  cast  down. 

But  in  connection  with  such  gifts  there  were  always  more 
laughs  than  sighs.  We  invited  to  luncheon  one  day  a 
dashing  Filipino  named  Tomaso  del  Rosario.  Senor 
Rosario,  a  man  of  wealth  and  prominence  who  had  a  fine 
Spanish  education  and  was  well  dressed  in  the  high-col- 
lared, patent-leathered  and  immaculate-linened  Spanish 
style,  was  quite  self-confident  and  enjoyed  himself  very 
much.  He  seemed  attracted  to  Maria  and  she,  being  lin- 
guistic, was  able  to  talk  to  him  in  a  mixture  of  many  lan- 
guages. The  next  day  she  received  from  Senor  Rosario, 

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not  a  floral  offering,  but  a  basket  filled  with  nuts,  a  canned 
plum-pudding,  some  canned  chocolates  and  preserved  f ruits0 
This  attention  did  not  seem  so  remarkable,  however,  when 
we  learned,  to  our  amusement,  that  he  had  sent  exactly  the 
same  present  to  Alice  Worcester,  then  five  years  old. 

Our  life,  on  the  whole,  was  intensely  interesting  in  its 
unusual  atmosphere  and  curious  complications,  but  through- 
out everything  we  were  made  to  feel  the  deep  significance 
of  our  presence  in  the  Islands;  and  the  work  of  the  Com- 
mission was  first,  last  and  always  to  us  the  subject  of  the 
greatest  moment.  Even  in  our  daily  round  of  social  af- 
fairs we  dealt  with  tremendous  problems  whose  correct  solu- 
tion meant  the  restoration  of  peace  and  prosperity  to  what 
then  should  have  been,  and  what  we  knew  could  be  made, 
a  great  country.  That  for  which  the  American  flag  had 
always  stood  began  to  assume,  for  many  of  us,  a  broader  and 
a  finer  meaning;  and  being  so  much  a  part  of  our  flag's 
mission  in  a  strange  field  a  certain  zest  was  added  to  our 
patriotism  which  we  had  never  felt  before.  I  believe,  and 
I  think  all  those  who  know  the  truth  believe,  that  Ameri- 
canism, in  its  highest  conception,  has  never  been  more  finely 
demonstrated  than  in  the  work  done  by  the  United  States 
in  the  Philippine  Islands;  work,  the  broad  foundation  for 
which  the  Commission  was  engaged  in  constructing  during 
the  period  of  which  I  write. 

So  many  were  the  problems  to  be  met  and  dealt  with  that 
in  the  beginning  the  Commissioners  were  each  given  a  set 
of  subjects  for  investigation  and  study,  their  findings  being 
submitted  for  debate  and  consideration  in  the  general  meet- 
ings. 

Taxation,  civil  service,  provincial  and  municipal  organi- 
sation, currency  and  finance,  police,  harbour  improvements, 
roads  and  railways,  customs,  postal  service,  education, 
health,  public  lands,  an  honest  judiciary  and  the  revision 
of  the  code  of  laws;  these  were  some  of  the  vital  problems, 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

but  underlying  them  all  was  the  immediate  necessity  for 
the  establishment  of  tranquillity  and  confidence  through- 
out the  archipelago. 

In  order  to  make  clear,  in  any  degree,  the  Philippine 
situation  as  we  found  it,  it  is  essential  that,  briefly,  the 
position  of  the  Catholic  Church  and  its  representatives,  the 
Friars,  be  explained.  For  the  first  time  in  its  history  the 
American  government  found  itself  compelled  to  adjust  a 
seemingly  insurmountable  difficulty  between  a  church  and 
its  people. 

With  us  the  Church  is  so  completely  separate  from  the 
State  that  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  cases  in  which  the  policy 
of  a  church  in  the  selection  of  its  ministers,  and  the  assign- 
ment of  them  to  duty  could  be  regarded  as  of  political  mo- 
ment, or  as  a  proper  subject  of  comment  in  the  report  of  a 
public  officer,  but  in  the  first  reports  of  the  Philippine  Com- 
mission to  Washington  this  subject  had  to  be  introduced 
with  emphasis. 

The  Spanish  government  of  the  Philippine  Islands  was 
a  government  by  the  Church  through  its  monastic  orders, 
nothing  less.  In  the  words  of  the  Provincial  of  the  Augus- 
tinians,  the  Friars  were  the  "pedestal  or  foundation  of  the 
sovereignty  of  Spain"  which  being  removed  "the  whole 
structure  would  topple  over."  The  Philippine  people,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Mohammedan  Moros  and  the  non- 
Christian  tribes,  belonged,  during  the  Spanish  dominion, 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  the  Church  registry  of 
1898  showed  a  total  membership  of  6,559,998.  The 
parishes  and  missions,  with  few  exceptions,  were  adminis- 
tered by  Spanish  Friars  of  the  Dominican,  Augustinian  and 
Franciscan  orders,  and  it  was  to  the  nature  of  this  adminis- 
tration that  Spain  owed  the  insurrections  of  1896  and  1898, 
the  latter  of  which  terminated  only  upon  our  assuming  con- 
trol of  the  islands. 

In  1896  there  were  in  the  Philippines  1,124  monks  of  the 

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Augustinian,  Dominican  and  Franciscan  orders,  which  body 
included  a  company  of  Recolletos,  who  are  merely  an  off- 
shoot of  the  order  of  St.  Augustine  and  differ  from  the 
Augustinians  only  in  that  they  are  unshod.  In  addition  to 
these  there  were  a  few  Jesuits,  Capuchins,  Benedictines  and 
Paulists,  but  they  engaged  in  mission  and  educational  work 
only  and  did  not  share  with  the  other  orders  the  resentment 
and  hatred  of  the  people.  Filipinos  were  not  admitted  to 
any  of  the  orders,  but  they  were  made  friar  curates  and 
served  as  parish  priests  in  some  of  the  smaller  places. 

When  a  Spanish  Friar  curate  was  once  settled  in  a  parish 
he  remained  there  for  life,  or  until  he  was  too  old  for  serv- 
ice, and  because  of  this  fact  he  was  able  to  establish  and 
maintain  an  absolutism  which  is  difficult  to  explain  in  a 
few  words.  He  was  simply  everything  in  his  parish.  As 
a  rule  he  was  the  only  man  of  education  who  knew  both 
Spanish  and  the  native  dialect  of  his  district,  and  in  many 
parishes  he  was  the  only  Spanish  representative  of  the  gov- 
ernment. In  the  beginning,  through  his  position  as  spirit- 
ual guide,  he  acted  as  intermediary  in  secular  matters 
between  his  people  and  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  eventu- 
ally, by  law,  he  came  to  discharge  many  civil  functions  and 
to  supervise,  correct  or  veto  everything  which  was  done, 
or  was  sought  to  be  done  in  his  pueblo. 

He  was  Inspector  of  Primary  Schools,  President  of  the 
Board  of  Health  and  the  Board  of  Charities,  President  of 
the  Board  of  Urban  Taxation,  Inspector  of  Taxation, 
President  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works,  Member  of  the 
Provincial  Council,  Member  of  the  Board  for  Partitioning 
Crown  Lands,  Censor  of  Municipal  Budgets,  and  Censor  of 
plays,  comedies  or  dramas  in  the  dialect  of  his  parish,  de- 
ciding whether  or  not  these  were  against  the  public  peace 
or  morals.  In  a  word,  he  was  the  government  of  his  par- 
ish; and  in  addition  to  all  things  else,  it  was  he  who, 
once  a  year,  went  to  the  parish  register,  wrote  on  slips  of 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

paper  the  names  of  all  boys  who  had  reached  the  age  of 
twenty,  and  putting  these  into  a  receptacle,  drew  them  out 
one  by  one  and  called  every  fifth  man  for  military  service. 
So  hateful  was  this  forced  duty  to  the  Filipino  youths  that 
many  of  them  would  run  away  into  the  mountains  and  hide, 
become  outlaws  in  order  to  escape  it.  But  the  civil  guard 
would  go  after  them  and  when  they  were  captured  they 
would  be  put  in  jail  and  watched  until  they  could  be  sent 
to  their  capital. 

The  monastic  orders  had  behind  them  a  powerful  church 
organisation  the  heads  of  which  took  an  active  and  official 
part  in  the  administration  of  government.  The  Archbishop 
and  the  Bishops  formed  part  of  what  was  known  in  Manila 
as  the  Board  of  Authorities;  and  they,  with  the  Provincials 
of  the  orders,  belonged  to  the  Council  of  Administration, 
a  body  analogous  to  the  Council  of  State  in  Spain  or  France, 
charged  with  advising  the  Governor  General  on  matters 
of  urgent  moment,  or  in  times  of  crises.  The  Friars, 
Priests  and  Bishops  constituted  a  solid,  permanent  and  well- 
organised  political  force  which  dominated  all  insular  pol- 
icies, and  the  stay  in  the  islands  of  the  civil  or  military 
officer  who  attempted  to  pursue  a  course  at  variance  with 
that  deemed  wise  by  the  orders,  was  invariably  shortened 
by  monastic  influence.  Each  order  had  in  Madrid  a  repre- 
sentative through  whom  the  Court  of  Spain  easily  could  be 
reached  without  the  intervention  of  any  authority. 

Upon  the  morals  of  the  Friars  I  can  only  touch.  That 
some  of  them  brought  up  families  of  sons  and  daughters 
is  beyond  question.  Such  were  guilty  of  violating  their  vows 
of  celibacy  rather  than  of  debauchery.  On  this  point  the 
moral  standard  of  the  Filipino  people  was  not  rigid,  and 
women  were  rather  proud  than  otherwise  of  the  parentage  of 
their  Friar- fathered  children  who  were  often  brighter,  better 
looking  and  more  successful  than  the  average  Filipino.  The 
truth  is  that  this  charge  was  urged  with  more  eagerness  and 

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emphasis  after  the  Filipinos  began  to  appeal  to  the  American 
government  than  during  Spanish  times,  and  when  the  stand- 
ard of  morality  in  the  Filipino  priesthood  of  the  period 
was  considered,  it  seemed  as  if  the  accusers  thought  the 
charge  would  have  more  weight  with  those  they  sought  to 
influence  than  it  did  with  themselves. 

The  three  great  orders  of  St.  Francis,  St.  Augustine  and 
St.  Dominic  owned,  in  different  parts  of  the  Islands,  more 
than  400,000  acres  of  the  best  agricultural  land,  and  this 
they  rented  out  in  small  parcels  to  the  people.  Their  in- 
come from  these  immense  holdings  was  not  what  a  prudent 
and  energetic  landlord  would  have  realised,  but  they  paid 
no  taxes,  while  the  Filipino  was  taxed  in  every  possible 
way. 

In  the  province  of  Cavite  alone  the  Friar  estates 
amounted  to  131,747  acres,  and  it  was  in  the  province  of 
Cavite,  which  is  just  across  the  bay  from  Manila,  that  the 
two  insurrections  against  Spain,  or  rather  against  Friar 
domination,  began. 

When  we  arrived  in  Manila  all  but  472  of  the  1,124 
Friars  had  either  been  killed  or  had  fled  the  country.  In 
each  of  the  uprisings  many  of  them  lost  their  lives,  and 
many  more  were  taken  prisoners.  Indeed,  the  last  of  them 
were  not  released  until  the  rapid  advance  of  the  American 
troops  in  our  own  encounter  with  the  insurrectos  made  it 
necessary  for  the  insurgent  army  to  abandon  all  unneces- 
sary impedimenta.  All  the  Friars  remaining  in  the  Is- 
lands had  taken  refuge  in  Manila. 

Strange  to  say,  this  resentment  against  the  Friars  inter- 
fered in  no  way  with  the  Filipino's  love  for  the  Church. 
With  a  strong  and  real  emotion  he  loves  the  religion  which 
has  been  given  him;  and  the  elaborate  and  beautiful  forms 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  are  calculated,  especially, 
to  make  a  powerful  appeal  to  his  mind.  It  is  really  an  as- 
tonishing commentary  on  the  character  of  these  people  that 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

they  should  be  able  to  rise  against  the  men  who  administered 
the  sacraments  which  they  so  deeply  loved  and  revered. 
Or,  is  it  more  of  a  commentary  on  the  conditions  which 
caused  the  uprisings'? 

Without  exception  the  Spanish  Friars  had  been  driven 
from  their  parishes,  and  the  most  burning  of  all  the  burn- 
ing political  questions  which  the  Commission  met  and  had 
to  settle,  was  whether  or  not  they  should  be  permitted  to 
return.  It  was  impossible  to  make  the  people  understand 
that  the  government  of  the  United  States  and  the  govern- 
ment of  Spain  were  two  different  matters,  and  that  if  the 
Friars  were  returned  to  their  parishes  they  would  exercise 
no  secular  functions  of  any  kind.  The  people  had  the  pro- 
verbial dread  of  the  "burnt  child"  and  no  amount  or  kind 
of  reasoning  could  move  them  from  the  position  they  had 
taken,  nor  could  any  of  them,  from  the  highest  to  the  low- 
est, talk  calmly  and  rationally  about  the  subject.  The  one 
point  upon  which  the  Filipinos  were  united  was  that  the 
Friars  should  never  be  reinstated. 

Universal  agitation,  uneasiness,  fear,  hatred,  a  memory 
of  wrongs  too  recently  resented  and  resented  at  too  great  a 
cost;  these  were  the  factors  which  made  necessary  the  stand 
which  the  Commission  finally  adopted.  The  question  with 
the  Friars  became  one,  largely,  of  getting  value  for  their 
property,  their  title  to  which  was  never  seriously  disputed, 
and  it  was  decided  that  on  condition  of  their  leaving  the 
Islands,  the  insular  government  would  undertake  the  pur- 
chase of  their  vast  estates.  The  intention  was  then  to  make 
some  arrangement  whereby  the  lands  might  be  sold  back 
to  the  people  in  homestead  tracts,  and  on  terms  which  the 
poorest  man  might  be  able,  in  time,  to  meet. 

It  was  to  negotiate  this  transaction,  involving  the  expen- 
diture of  $7,000,000  that  my  husband  was  sent  to  Rome 
the  following  year  as  an  emissary  of  the  United  States 
government  to  the  Vatican.  This  was  in  the  time  of  Pope 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Leo,  and  it  made  a  most  interesting  experience  which  I  shall 
detail  in  another  chapter. 

The  first  thing,  really,  that  the  Commission  undertook 
when  they  arrived  in  Manila,  was  the  settlement  of  a  defi- 
nite dispute  between  the  Church  and  the  People  as  to  which 
had  the  right  to  administer  the  affairs  of  the  Medical  Col- 
lege of  San  Jose.  Their  manner  of  procedure  in  this  case 
instituted  in  the  Islands  a  new  and  never-before-thought-of 
system  of  evenly  balanced  justice,  and  made  a  tremendous 
sensation. 

The  case  was  called:  "T.  H.  Pardo  de  Tavera,  and 
others,  for  themselves  and  other  inhabitants  of  the  Philip- 
pine Islands — against — The  Rector  of  the  University  of 
Santo  Tomas,  a  Dominican  monk,  and  the  Holy  Roman 
Apostolic  Catholic  Church,  represented  by  the  Most  Rever- 
end, the  Archbishop  of  Manila,  and  the  Most  Reverend,  the 
Archbishop  of  New  Orleans,  Apostolic  Delegate."  Its  im- 
portance, under  the  conditions  then  existing,  can  hardly 
be  exaggerated. 

San  Jose  was  one  of  the  oldest  institutions  in  the  Islands; 
it  was  founded,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  1601,  by  virtue  of  a 
legacy  left  by  a  Spanish  Provincial  Governor  named  Figu- 
eroa  who  provided  that  it  should  always  be  managed  by 
the  head  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  Islands.  It  was  originally  a 
college  for  the  education  of  Spanish  boys,  but  through  va- 
rious vicissitudes,  including  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  in 
1766,  it  had  changed  from  one  thing  to  another  until, 
finally,  it  had  become  a  college  of  physicians  and  pharmacists 
and  was  made  a  department  of  the  University  of  Santo 
Tomas,  the  Rector  of  which  was  a  Dominican  Friar.  One 
of  the  Philips  had  granted  to  the  college  a  Royal  charter, 
and  within  the  last  hundred  years  the  Crown  had  asserted 
its  right  of  control.  So  when  the  American  government 
took  over  all  the  public  property  in  the  Philippines,  Gen- 
eral Otis  closed  San  Jose,  but  he  did  not  issue  an  order  as 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

to  its  management.  The  Church  was  petitioning  for  a  resti- 
tution of  what  it  regarded  as  its  rights  in  the  property,  and 
the  Commission  was  called  upon  to  settle  the  controversy. 

They  conducted  their  examinations  in  open  meetings  so 
that  all  might  see  the  full  and  free  workings  of  a  wholly 
equitable  system,  and  the  Filipinos  were  enabled  to  behold, 
for  the  first  time,  the,  to  them,  astonishing  spectacle  of  high 
ecclesiastics  presenting  in  open  court  the  arguments  upon 
which  they  based  their  claims. 

The  first  hearing  Mr.  Taft  describes  as  "an  historic 
scene." 

"There  were  the  two  Archbishops  in  their  archiepiscopal 
cassocks,"  he  writes,  "with  purple  girdles  and  diamond 
crosses,  accompanied  by  a  Secretary  of  the  Dominican  order 
robed  in  white;  while  opposed  was  a  Filipino  lawyer,  Don 
Felipe  Calderon,  who  derived  his  education  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Santo  Tomas.  Accompanying  him  were  a  lot  of 
young  Filipino  students  and  others  of  the  Medical  Associa- 
tion interested  in  wresting  San  Jose  from  the  University. 
The  Archbishop  of  Manila  made  a  speech  in  which  he  was 
unable  to  restrain  the  feeling  of  evident  pain  that  he  had  in 
finding  the  rights  of  the  Church  challenged  in  this  Catholic 
country.  He  made  a  very  dignified  appearance." 

And  at  the  second  hearing: 

"Both  Archbishops  were  again  present,  and  the  same 
scene  was  re-enacted  except  that  we  had  rather  more  of  a 
formal  hearing.  We  had  them  seated  on  opposite  sides  of 
a  table,  just  as  we  do  in  court  at  home,  and  had  seats  for  the 
spectators. 

"Senor  Don  Felipe  Calderon,  who  represents  the  Philip- 
pine people,  was  given  an  opportunity  to  make  the  first 
speech.  He  had  printed  his  argument  and  read  it,  having 
given  us  translated  copies  with  which  we  followed  him. 
His  argument  was  a  very  strong  one,  lawyer-like  and  well- 
conceived,  but  he  weakened  it  by  some  vicious  remarks  about 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

the  Dominican  order.  The  Archbishop  of  Manila,  once  or 
twice,  felt  so  much  outraged  at  what  he  said  that  he  at- 
tempted to  rise,  but  Archbishop  Chapelle  prevented  him  from 
doing  so.  At  the  close  of  the  argument  Monsignor  Chapelle 
asked  for  ten  days  in  which  to  prepare  an  answer  and  we 
granted  him  two  weeks.  The  scene  was  one  I  shall  always 
carry  with  me  as  marking  an  interesting  period  in  my  Phil- 
ippine experience." 

The  Commission  did  not  settle  the  question.  After  care- 
ful consideration  and  many  hearings,  they  left  the  property 
in  the  hands  of  the  Dominicans,  but  appointed  a  Board  of 
Trustees  to  prepare  and  present  an  appeal  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  Islands,  appropriating  at  the  same  time,  five 
thousand  dollars  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  litigation. 

Archbishop  Chapelle  did  not  like  this  decision  and  tele- 
graphed to  Secretary  Root  asking  him  to  withhold  his 
approval.  Then  he  asked  the  Commission  to  modify  the 
law  and  give  him  an  opportunity,  in  case  the  decision  in  the 
Supreme  Court  should  go  against  the  Church,  to  appeal  to 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  This  the  Commission 
refused  to  do  on  good  and  sufficient  grounds,  whereupon 
the  Archbishop  cabled  to  the  President,  declaring  that  the 
decision  as  it  stood  would  retard  pacification.  Although  he 
had  always  been  strongly  opposed  to  the  continuation  of  mil- 
itary government,  we  were  much  amused  to  learn  that  in  his 
cable  to  the  President  he  took  occasion  to  remark,  signifi- 
cantly, that  "General  MacArthur  is  doing  splendidly." 

But  if  Archbishop  Chapelle  was  displeased  with  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Commission,  the  Filipino  press  was  delighted, 
and  the  editorial  encomiums  heaped  upon  them  can  only 
be  described  as  brilliant.  The  Diario  de  Manila,  the  next 
morning,  was  absolutely  unable  to  express  itself,  and  it 
concluded  a  more  or  less  incoherently  eulogistic  editorial 
with  the  words:  "The  decision  satisfies  everybody;  it 
raises  a  question  which  threatened  to  drag  itself  over  the 

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hot  sands  we  tread,  cleanses  it  of  all  impurities,  and  makes 
it  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  a  most  transcendental  prin- 
ciple of  sovereignty  and  law."  The  Filipino  or  Spanish 
editor  is  nothing  if  he  is  not  hyperbolic. 

When  we  arrived  in  Manila  it  was  a  source  of  great  worry 
to  us  that  we  could  not  send  our  children,  eight  and  ten 
years  old,  to  school.  The  Jesuits  had  a  school  for  boys  in 
the  Walled  City,  and  Mr.  Taft  considered  for  awhile  the 
possibility  of  sending  Robert  there,  where  he  might,  at 
least,  learn  Spanish;  but  so  strong  was  the  feeling  against 
the  Friars  that  this  would  have  been  taken  by  the  people 
as  a  certain  indication  that  the  President  of  the  Commission 
was  leaning  toward  the  Church  in  his  deliberations  on  the 
vital  -subject.  As  I  have  said,  they  could  not  look  upon 
this  question,  in  any  of  its  bearings,  in  a  reasonable  light. 

We  eventually  settled  Helen  in  a  convent  where  she  made 
an  effort  to  learn  Spanish,  and  Robert  we  turned  over  to 
Mrs.  LeRoy,  the  wife  of  Mr.  Worcester's  Secretary,  who 
was  a  graduate  from  the  University  of  Michigan  and  a 
most  excellent  teacher. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  LeRoy  went  to  the  Philippines  as  bride 
and  groom.  They  were  classmates,  graduated  together, 
and  this  was  their  first  big  venture  into  the  world.  They 
were  a  valued  part  of  our  little  pioneer  circle,  and  it  was 
with  the  greatest  dismay  that  we  learned,  after  about  two 
years  in  the  Islands,  that  Mr.  LeRoy  had  developed  tuber- 
culosis. He  had  either  brought  the  germs  with  him  from 
the  United  States  or  had  contracted  the  disease  there, 
where,  indeed,  it  is  most  prevalent.  He  continued  to  act 
as  Secretary  for  Mr.  Worcester  beyond  the  time  when  he 
should  have  gone  to  another  climate  to  devote  himself  to 
a  cure,  but  finally,  when  he  realised  that  the  sentence  was 
upon  him,  he  decided  to  leave  the  Islands,  and  my  husband 
was  able  to  secure  for  him,  because  of  his  splendid  efficiency, 
a  position  in  the  Consular  service  under  Mr.  Hay,  at  Dur- 

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ango,  Mexico.  This  post  was  chosen  because  it  is  in  a  dry, 
mountainous  region  where  the  ravages  of  tuberculosis  are 
supposed  to  be  checked. 

Mr.  LeRoy  was  an  exceedingly  well-informed  and  stu- 
dious man.  He  was  a  natural  linguist,  spoke  Spanish  with 
ease,  and  soon  was  able  to  acquire  enough  Tagalog  to  en- 
able him  to  go  among  the  people  and  get  their  point  of  view 
at  first  hand.  He  immediately  became  interested  in  writ- 
ing a  history  of  the  Islands  and  wanted  much  to  go  to  Spain 
to  examine  Spanish-Philippine  documents  at  Seville  and 
other  places,  but  he  was  never  able  to  do  so. 

In  the  days  when  death  faced  him  in  New  Mexico, 
whither  he  had  gone  after  leaving  Durango,  he  wrote,  as 
Grant  wrote,  on  a  book  which  he  hoped  might  furnish  some 
means  to  his  wife  after  his  death.  He  died  before  he  was 
able  to  complete  what  Mr.  Taft  says  is  a  very  accurate, 
comprehensive  and  interesting  history  of  the  Archipelago 
from  the  beginning  down  to,  and  including,  Dewey's  vic- 
tory, the  taking  of  Manila  and  the  work  of  the  first  Com- 
mission. He  had  planned  to  give  a  full  account  of  the 
work  of  the  second  Commission,  with  which  he  was  so 
intimately  connected,  but  his  pen  dropped  before  his  pur- 
pose was  fulfilled.  His  history  has  been  only  recently 
published. 

Mrs.  LeRoy  later  went  to  Washington,  and  Mr.  Taft 
appointed  her  to  one  of  the  few  clerical  positions  not  covered 
by  the  Civil  Service  law.  This  is  in  the  Land  Office  where 
she  signs  the  President's  name  to  land  patents.  She  is  the 
only  person  in  the  government  who  has  the  right  and  power, 
given  by  special  act  of  Congress,  to  sign  the  President's 
name  to  a  document. 

Throughout  the  autumn  of  1900  the  insurrection  dragged 
itself  along;  behind  any  bush  the  American  soldiers  were 
likely  to  find  a  lurking  "patriot";  and  the  uncensored  re- 
ports of  the  "brave  stand"  of  the  Filipinos  were  being  sent 

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out  daily  by  Democratic  reporters,  to  help  along  the  anti- 
expansionist  cause,  represented  by  Mr.  Bryan,  in  the  United 
States. 

The  insurrectos  were  being  assured  by  their  incitants  to 
violence  that  the  eyes  of  the  world  were  upon  them.  They 
were  being  told  that  they  were  winning  undying  renown 
throughout  the  civilised  universe;  and  they  believed  it. 
They  read  with  avidity  all  the  anti-imperialistic  newspapers 
which  came  out  to  the  Islands  and  accepted  as  a  true  esti- 
mate of  themselves  the  laudations  therein  contained.  Be- 
sides, the  promoters  of  the  insurrection  pretended  to  trans- 
late from  other  languages  still  more  extravagant  praises, 
and  they  certainly  were  enjoying  a  most  exalted  opinion  of 
themselves. 

We  understood  that  Aguinaldo  was  trying  to  concentrate 
for  one  spectacular  move  shortly  before  election,  in  order 
to  add  to  the  chances  of  a  Democratic  victory ;  and  there  was 
some  cause  for  alarm.  The  Filipinos  are  bora  politicians 
and  many  of  them  knew  much  more  about  the  campaign 
between  Bryan  and  McKinley  than  the  Americans  in  the 
Islands  knew. 

Apropos  of  this:  Archbishop  Chapelle  told  Mr.  Taft 
that  Aguinaldo  had,  through  Archbishop  Nozaleda,  re- 
quested an  interview  with  him.  Monsignor  Chapelle  went 
to  General  MacArthur  and  asked  that  Aguinaldo  be  al- 
lowed to  enter  Manila.  The  General  readily  gave  his  con- 
sent, and  even  offered  the  revolutionary  Dictator  the  hospi- 
tality of  his  own  roof.  Aguinaldo,  in  due  military  form,  ac- 
knowledged this  courtesy  and  fixed  the  time  for  his  arrival  in 
Manila.  He  clearly  indicated  that  he  was  discouraged  and 
had  decided  to  solicit  permission,  through  Archbishop 
Chapelle,  to  leave  the  Islands.  But  just  then  the  news  of 
Bryan's  plan  for  calling  an  extra  session  of  Congress  to 
settle  Philippine  independence  came  out,  so  the  insurgent 
general  sent  word  that  he  had  decided  not  to  come.  No 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

American  knew  just  where  he  was,  but  he  probably  got 
the  papers  and  telegrams  just  as  soon  as  any  of  us. 

I  remember  the  sixth  of  November  as  a  very  nervous  day. 
We  had  received  all  manner  of  reports  from  home ;  we  were 
so  far  away  that  mail  and  newspapers  were  a  month  old 
when  they  reached  us;  and  the  cable  reports  had  been  con- 
tradictory in  the  extreme.  We  really  were  on  our  tiptoes 
with  excitement.  And  the  worst  of  it  was  that  because  of 
the  thirteen  hours'  difference  in  time  between  Washington 
and  Manila,  we  lived  through  the  day  knowing  that  the 
United  States  was  asleep,  and  went  to  bed  just  about  the 
time  voters  began  to  go  to  the  polls.  We  kept  getting  all 
manner  of  doubtful  telegrams  throughout  the  next  morn- 
ing— when  it  was  night  in  the  United  States  and  the  votes 
were  being  counted — but  just  at  one  o'clock,  as  we  went  to 
lunch,  Mr.  Taft  received  a  despatch  from  General  Corbin 
in  accordance  with  his  previous  agreement.  It  read: 
"Taft  Manila  McKinley  Corbin."  It  had  been  sent  from 
the  War  Department  in  Washington  at  eleven  o'clock  the 
night  of  the  election  and  had  taken  just  forty-five  minutes 
in  transmission.  This  was  record  time  for  a  cablegram 
then  between  Washington  and  Manila,  despatches  having 
to  be  sent  by  numerous  relays. 


141 


CHAPTER  VII 

"DAYS  OF  THE  EMPIRE" 

THERE  was  a  trying  period  of  unrest  and  uncertainty  in  our 
early  experience  in  the  Philippines,  during  which  we  lived 
in  a  state  of  suspense  which  can  hardly  be  described ;  a  state 
of  suspense  which  included  among  its  various  elements  the 
excitement  of  an  intermittent  guerilla  warfare  and  frequent 
threats  of  native  uprisings  in  Manila.  Established  order 
and  a  fixed  governmental  policy,  so  necessary  to  the  tran- 
quillity of  the  normal  citizen,  were  non-existent,  and  one 
experienced  a  sense  of  complete  detachment  which  made 
plans  for  even  the  immediate  future  seem  entirely  futile. 
To  unpack  all  one's  things;  to  establish  a  satisfactory  home 
and  give  one's  attention  to  its  ornamentation;  to  supply 
one's  self  with  the  necessities  of  a  long  residence  in  the 
tropics;  in  other  words,  to  settle  down  to  the  pursuit  of  a 
usual  mode  of  existence;  all  these  things  had  to  be  done, 
but,  needless  to  say,  they  were  not  done  with  the  enthusiasm 
incident  to  a  feeling  of  permanence,  nor  did  such  enthusi- 
asm begin  to  manifest  itself  in  the  local  atmosphere  until 
after  the  re-election  of  Mr.  McKinley  in  1900  when  it  be- 
came certain  that  the  American  flag  was  in  the  islands  to 
stay  as  long  as  its  presence  there  should  be  deemed  requisite 
to  the  peaceful  development  of  the  country  and  the  fitting 
of  the  people  for  self  government. 

There  were  those  who  saw  long  years  ahead, — not  all 
Americans,  by  any  means, — and  soon  the  American  spirit 
began  to  make  itself  felt  in  business,  in  schemes  of  civic 
progress,  in  social  life,  in  everything.  We  were  there  for 
a  purpose  which  was  at  last  defined,  so  we  cheerfully  con- 
fronted chaos  and  went  to  work. 

We  were  sorry  to  note  that  the  election  of  Mr.  McKinley 
and  the  consequent  establishment  of  the  American  status 

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in  the  Philippines  did  not  change  the  military  attitude  to- 
ward the  manner  of  solving  the  governmental  problems. 
The  Commission  was  definitely  pledged  to  the  rapid  adjust- 
ment of  affairs  on  a  civil  and  generally  representative  basis, 
but  the  military  authorities  still  maintained  that  military 
rule  would  continue  to  be  a  necessity  for  an  indefinite  period. 

However,  the  Civil  Commission  went  on  its  way  map- 
ping out  a  programme  of  peaceful  pacification  and  carrying 
it  into  effect  as  promptly  as  possible,  while  its  activities 
engaged  universal  attention  and  formed  the  chief  topic 
of  conversation  wherever  two  or  more  people  were  met  to- 
gether. Society  became  frivolous  enough,  but  nobody  ever 
got  very  far  away  from  the  questions  of  absorbing  interest 
with  which  many  of  us  were  so  closely  associated. 

Our  first  Christmas  surely  would  have  saddened  us  in 
our  peculiar  exile  had  we  been  able  to  realise  its  approach, 
but  this  was  not  possible.  The  "Christmas  spirit"  does  not 
thrive  in  a  temperature  of  eighty-odd  degrees,  and  I  think 
I  would  have  taken  little  interest  in  preparations  for  the 
holidays  had  not  my  children  been  there  to  remind  me  that 
Christmas  is  Christmas  no  matter  what  the  thermometer 
may  say  about  it.  It  was  still  the  most  important  day  in 
the  year  for  them  and  it  was  almost  pathetic  to  see  them 
trying  to  defeat  the  climate  through  sheer  force  of  their 
imaginations.  It  was  a  "green  Christmas"  with  a  ven- 
geance, and  very  hot. 

Our  friends  at  home  had  not  forgotten  that  we  were  more 
than  a  month's  journey  away  and  letters  began  to  arrive  as 
early  as  November  in  each  of  which  some  mention  was  made 
of  a  box  which  would  be  sent  from  Cincinnati  in  time  to 
reach  us  before  Christmas  and,  naturally,  we  began  at  once 
to  imagine  its  contents.  For  weeks  our  children's  favourite 
amusement  was  exchanging  guesses  as  to  what  sort  of  gifts 
their  affectionate  relatives  had  sent  them.  Nor  were  their 
Aunt  Maria  and  I  any  less  excited.  There  were  transports 

H3 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

every  two  weeks  in  those  days  and  we  were  not  at  all  dis- 
appointed not  to  receive  our  box  on  the  early  December 
ship.  There  would  be  another  one  in  on  Christmas  day  and 
it  would  be  much  nicer,  we  thought,  to  get  it  then,  and 
never  a  doubt  did  we  have  that  it  would  come.  Mr.  Taft 
had  a  messenger  ready  to  get  it  and  bring  it  to  the  house 
as  soon  as  it  could  be  landed. 

From  our  balcony  we  watched  the  transport  steam  up  the 
bay;  we  felt  the  interest  that  only  a  Christmas  box  from 
home,  ten  thousand  miles  away,  could  excite;  we  forgot 
that  it  was  eighty  in  the  shade;  it  was  really  Christmas. 
We  waited  as  patiently  as  we  could  for  our  messenger,  but 
when  he  arrived  he  had  only  sympathy  to  offer  us.  The 
box  had  not  come.  It  was  a  most  depressing  disappoint- 
ment, and  the  children  were  inconsolable.  However,  every- 
body cheered  up  about  dinner  time.  I  had  done  what  I 
could  with  red  ribbons  and  greenery,  with  cotton  wool  and 
diamond  dust  to  create  the  proper  atmosphere ;  then  we  had 
invited  a  number  of  homeless  young  secretaries  and  others  to 
take  Christmas  cheer  with  us,  and  though  the  cold  storage 
turkey  was  tough  and  the  cranberry  sauce  and  plum-pudding 
were  from  Commissary  cans,  we  managed  a  near  approach 
to  a  Yuletide  air,  and  little  Charlie  went  to  bed  with  his 
Escolta  toys  quite  as  happy  as  he  would  have  been  had  he 
been  at  home  in  his  own  country.  I  assured  the  three  chil- 
dren that  the  box  from  home  would  come  in  on  the  next 
transport  and  promised  that  we  would  then  have  Christmas 
all  over  again.  But  I  reckoned  without  knowledge  of  the 
shipping  methods  of  the  transport  service.  Transports 
came  and  transports  went;  our  hopes  were  dashed  to  earth 
any  number  of  times  and  it  was  endless  weeks  before  our 
carefully  prepared  and  holly-decked  presents  finally  arrived. 

On  New  Year's  morning  General  MacArthur  gave  a 
reception  at  Malacanan  Palace.  It  was  such  an  affair  as  is 
spoken  of  in  social  circles  everywhere  as  "the  event  of  the 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

It  was  a  very  special  event  to  all  the  members  of 
the  Commission  and  their  families,  because  not  one  of  us  had 
ever  been  invited  to  the  Palace  before. 

There  was  much  discussion  of  the  serious  subject  as  to 
what  the  civil  government  officials  should  wear  at  the  New 
Year's  reception  and,  if  gossip  can  be  relied  upon,  it  came 
very  near  causing  several  family  riots.  The  men  naturally 
inclined  toward  the  comfort  of  their  white  linens,  but  they 
were  overcome  by  argument  and  it  was  eventually  decreed 
that  they  should  present  themselves  in  frock  coats  and  silk 
hats.  This  may  sound  reasonable,  but  it  wasn't.  It  was 
intensely  funny,  however,  and  that  helped  some.  A  silk 
hat  which  has  reposed  in  a  box  throughout  a  rainy  season  in 
the  Philippines  is  a  curious  object.  It  is  not  the  glossy,  well 
turned  and  dignified  article  which  a  silk  hat  should  be.  Its 
rim  is  warped,  its  nap  is  dulled  and  roughed  beyond  repair; 
it  is  very  sticky,  and  it  has  an  odour  all  its  own.  In  Judge 
Ide's  hat  some  mice  had  made  a  nest  and  had  eaten  a  small 
hole  through  its  one-time  shiny  crown,  but  it  was  the  only 
one  he  had  and,  as  silk  hats  are  not  carried  in  Philippine 
shops,  he  had,  perforce,  to  wear  it. 

My  husband  communed  with  himself  during  the  process 
of  getting  into  his  heavy  frock  coat  with  all  its  stiff  and  its 
woollen  accessories, — for  the  first  time  in  seven  months  and 
in  the  bright  white  heat  of  a  tropic  morning, — but  we  were 
finally  ready  and  on  the  way,  in  our  diminutive  Victoria 
behind  the  prancing  black  stallion  ponies  of  uncertain  dis- 
position. 

When  we  arrived  at  Malacanan,  quite  early  as  we  thought, 
we  found  ourselves  in  a  long  block  of  carriages  which  moved 
up  slowly  and,  one  by  one,  discharged  their  occupants  under 
the  porte-cochere  of  the  Palace.  Considerations  of  rank  and 
precedence  had  escaped  our  minds  for  the  moment  and  this 
was  evidently  a  very  important  matter.  However,  we 
found  a  capable  staff  of  military  aides  who  knew  just  where 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

everybody  belonged,  and  they  adopted  the  method  of  mar- 
shalling the  crowds  into  a  room  on  the  first  floor  and  letting 
them  out  in  the  proper  order  of  precedence.  In  consequence 
we  found  a  more  or  less  annoyed  throng  awaiting  our  arrival. 
We  had  plenty  of  rank,  my  husband  being  the  ranking  civil 
officer  in  the  Islands,  but  as  everybody  in  Manila  had  been 
invited,  the  process  of  forming  the  line  was  a  long  and 
laborious  one  and  many  were  the  caustic  comments  of  the 
delayed  and  rankless  multitude.  It  reminded  one  forcibly 
of  similar  receptions  at  the  White  House,  except  that  in 
Washington  everybody  knows  the  rules  of  precedence  gov- 
erning diplomatic  circles  and  recognises  the  necessity  for 
following  them,  while  in  Manila  it  was  a  departure  which 
did  not  meet  with  full  and  general  approval. 

General  MacArthur  and  his  staff  were  receiving  at  the 
head  of  the  grand  staircase  on  the  second  floor,  and,  as  the 
spacious  rooms  became  filled  with  military  men  in  dress  uni- 
forms, with  gaily  attired  women  and  black-coated  civilians, 
the  scene  was  sufficiently  dignified  to  make  one  feel  that  a 
brilliant  local  society  was  an  established  fact.  But  there 
was  no  denying  that  it  was  hot  and  that  the  Army  officers 
in  trim  white  duck  had  the  frock-coated,  camphor-ball- 
scented  and  profusely  perspiring  civil  government  officials 
at  a  disadvantage. 

Nowdays — and  always  after  that  first  experiment — the 
man  in  a  temperate-zone  costume  is  a  sadly  conspicuous 
figure  at  a  social  gathering  in  Manila.  The  accepted  formal 
evening  dress  is  white  linen  with  either  a  short  mess  jacket 
or  a  dinner  coat  of  the  usual  pattern,  while  for  morning  or 
afternoon  affairs  a  man  may  wear  anything  his  laundryman 
can  turn  out  for  him.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  early  days 
in  Manila  women,  as  well  as  men,  enjoyed  emancipation 
from  the  tyranny  of  clothes.  It  was  a  case  of  discovering 
how  unnecessary  many  supposed  necessities  are.  There 
were  no  fashionable  gowns  to  be  had,  therefore  sim- 

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plicity,  or  a  more  or  less  rundownedness  of  one-time  respect- 
ability, became  the  fashion.  There  were  no  hat  shops, 
so  women  ceased  to  wear  hats.  We  went  shopping  on 
the  Escolta  in  the  early  morning  hatless;  we  went  to 
luncheon  parties  hatless,  and  in  the  later  afternoon  we 
made  our  calls  and  drove  on  the  Luneta  minus  the  mil- 
linery which  is  considered  so  dear  to  a  woman's  heart.  I  do 
not  say  that  the  women  liked  it;  there  were  many  plaintive 
protests ;  but  it  was  one  of  the  crosses  of  their  environment 
which  saved  them  numerous  jealous  pangs  as  well  as  much 
expense.  It  is  different  now.  The  importer  of  fashionable 
millinery  and  sumptuous  garments  has  invaded  the  field 
and  the  women  in  Manila  to-day  are  about  as  finely  gowned 
and  hatted  as  they  are  anywhere,  but  I  doubt  if  they  are  as 
care- free  and  comfortable  as  we  were  in  "the  days  of  the 
Empire." 

It  was  expected  that  the  New  Year's  reception  at  Mala- 
cafian  was  intended  to  inaugurate  a  gay  season  of  hospitality 
at  the  Palace,  as  General  MacArthur  announced  a  dinner 
and  reception  to  follow  early  in  January.  But  they  were 
unquiet  times ;  for  various  reasons  there  were  many  postpone- 
ments; then  came  the  death  of  Queen  Victoria,  whereupon 
the  British  community  went  into  mourning,  and,  as  it  was 
deemed  courteous  to  observe  a  period  of  social  inactivity,  it 
was  many  weeks  before  we  again  went  to  Malacafian. 

The  campaign  of  pacification,  due  to  the  election  of 
McKinley,  the  activity  of  the  army,  and  the  actual  legisla- 
tion and  organisation  work  of  the  Commission,  was  making 
great  progress  throughout  the  Islands  and  hardly  a  day 
passed  that  did  not  bring  news  of  the  capture  or  surrender  of 
insurgent  officers  and  forces  in  the  provinces,  while  in  Manila 
they  were  being  arrested  and  imprisoned  by  the  hundreds. 
They  were  given  an  opportunity  to  take  the  oath  of  allegi- 
ance and  those  who  persisted  in  their  refusal  to  do  so  were 
banished  to  Guam.  This  vigorous  policy  was  having  a 

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marked  effect  upon  the  spirit  of  the  insurrection  and  it  was 
rapidly  approaching  total  collapse. 

The  peace  movement  was  greatly  assisted,  too,  by  the  ac- 
tivities of  the  Federal  party,  a  strong  political  organisation, 
pledged  to  the  acceptance  of  American  control  and  American 
principles,  which  numbered  among  its  leaders  and  adherents 
many  of  the  best  men  in  the  Philippines.  In  its  directory 
were  Chief  Justice  Arellano,  Don  Benito  Legarda,  Dr.  Pardo 
de  Tavera  and  General  Ambrosio  Flores,  a  one-time  leader 
of  the  insurrection. 

Perhaps  the  most  extraordinary  demonstration  any  of  us 
ever  saw  in  Manila  took  place  on  Washington's  birthday 
in  1901.  The  Commission  had  already  begun  its  long  task 
of  instituting  provincial  and  municipal  governments  and  its 
members  had  just  returned  from  a  trip  into  the  country  north 
of  Manila  where  they  had  been  received  with  great  enthusi- 
asm, and  where  the  people  had  shown  every  indication  of  a 
glad  determination  to  stop  all  hostilities  and  settle  down  to 
peaceful  pursuits  under  the  representative  and  democratic 
system  which  the  Commission  was  inaugurating. 

On  the  evening  of  February  20,  General  MacArthur  gave 
a  splendid  reception  at  Malacanan,  where  Americans  and 
Filipinos  mingled  together  in  perfect  amity,  the  Filipinos 
being  in  the  majority.  They  seemed  greatly  pleased  with 
the  spirit  of  the  occasion  which  served  to  demonstrate  in  a 
particular  manner  the  fact  that  America  was  in  the  Philip- 
pines as  a  friend  rather  than  as  an  arbitrary  ruler;  that  there 
was  to  be  none  of  the  familiar  colour  or  race  prejudice,  so  far 
as  we  were  concerned,  in  the  association  of  the  two  peoples ; 
that  the  best  thing  to  do  was  to  acknowledge  a  mutual  as- 
piration and  strive  for  its  fulfilment  in  friendly  co-opera- 
tion; and  there  was  a  heart-lift  for  us  all,  Americans  and 
Filipinos  alike,  in  the  whole  tone  of  the  evening.  On  the 
night  of  the  2 1st,  the  Partido  Federal  gave  a  famous  dinner 
at  a  new  hotel  where  a  French  chef  prepared  the  menu. 

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Before  this  my  husband  had  jokingly  written  to  Secretary 
Root  that  he  thought  some  sort  of  pension  should  be  pro- 
vided for  the  widows  and  orphans  of  the  men  who  fell  in 
action  before  the  fearful  onslaughts  of  native  hospitality, 
but  at  the  banquet  of  the  Federal  party  there  were  none  of 
those  mysterious  viands  to  which  the  Commissioners  had 
been  trying  to  accustom  themselves  in  the  provinces,  and  in 
consequence  the  quality  of  mutual  enjoyment  was  not 
strained,  the  Filipino,  unlike  the  Japanese,  being  as  fond  of 
foreign  cookery  as  he  is  of  his  own.  The  speeches  were  all 
of  the  friendliest  character  and  the  "dove  of  peace,"  verily, 
seemed  to  be  hovering  near. 

The  next  morning,  the  22nd  of  February,  the  Federal 
party,  many  thousands  strong,  marched  through  a  flag- 
decked  city  to  the  Luneta  where  a  speakers'  stand  had  been 
erected  for  the  celebration  of  the  day.  There  were  scores  of 
bands,  each,  as  usual,  playing  its  own  tune  in  its  own  way 
regardless  of  what  the  others  were  doing;  the  populace, 
in  its  gayest  attire,  crowded  in  the  wake  of  the  procession; 
the  spirit  of  festivity  was  rampant;  and  altogether  it  was  a 
most  interesting  scene. 

As  close  as  ten  thousand  people  could  get  to  a  speakers' 
stand  ten  thousand  people  massed  themselves,  and  they 
listened  in  respectful  silence  to  the  words  of  both  the  Ameri- 
can and  Filipino  speakers,  each  one  of  whom  made  a  spirited 
appeal  for  peaceful  co-operation  in  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem which  America  had  acquired  through  no  fault  or  desire 
of  her  own  and  which  she  could  not,  in  honour,  abandon. 
General  Wright  was  the  American  speaker  of  the  day  and  the 
frank  friendliness  of  his  speech  was  translated,  paragraph  by 
paragraph  as  he  delivered  it,  by  Mr.  Arthur  Fergusson,  the 
Secretary-interpreter  for  the  Commission,  whose  extraordi- 
nary command  of  Spanish  made  it  possible  for  him  not  only 
to  translate  the  words  themselves,  but  to  infuse  into  them 
the  poetic  fervour  of  the  Spanish  tongue.  Never  was  Wash- 

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ington's  birthday  so  celebrated,  and  it  marked  a  new  era  of 
mutual  toleration  which  was  to  grow  into  sympathetic 
understanding  disturbed  only  by  the  agitation  of  the  few 
whose  aspirations  were  in  no  way  in  those  days  shared  or 
condoned  by  the  many. 

The  method  adopted  by  the  Commission  for  organising 
provincial  governments  was  extremely  simple.  The  people 
were  instructed  to  send  delegates  from  all  the  towns  in  a 
province  to  meet  the  Commission  on  a  given  date  at  the 
provincial  capital.  Having  gathered  this  popular  assembly 
in  the  largest  available  hall  Mr.  Taft,  or  some  other  member 
of  the  Commission,  would  proceed  to  read  and  explain  the 
new  Provincial  Code  which  covered  every  governmental 
function  and  which  provided  for  the  appointment  by  the 
Commission  of  a  provincial  governor,  a  treasurer  and  a  sec- 
retary. It  was  the  intention  of  the  Commission  to  name  a 
Filipino  for  governor  in  each  province,  thereby  giving  them 
an  immediate  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  self-govern- 
ment, but  in  several  instances  they  were  almost  unanimously 
petitioned  by  the  people  to  appoint  to  this  office  the  Ameri- 
can Army  officer  who  had  been  in  command  in  the  district. 
Considering  the  attitude  of  the  Filipinos  toward  military 
rule  and  their  eagerness  to  substitute  a  purely  civil  form  of 
government,  it  was  really  astonishing  that  they  should  have 
wished  to  retain  any  representative  of  the  hated  regime,  but 
personality  counts  for  a  great  deal  with  the  Filipinos,  and 
the  Army  officer  who  displayed  tact  and  kindly  justice  in  his 
dealings  with  them  was  sure  to  win  for  himself  a  peculiar 
popularity. 

For  treasurer  an  American  was  almost  invariably  chosen. 
During  Spanish  times  the  Filipinos  had  not  learned  much 
about  the  proper  use  of  public  funds  and  they  have  had  to 
be  very  painstakingly  taught  that  government  money  is  for 
government  purposes  only.  To  our  poignant  and  everlast- 
ing shame  object  lessons  had  to  be  given  them  by  the  drastic 

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punishment  meted  out  to  certain  American  treasurers  who 
were  unable  to  resist  temptation.  The  penalty  prescribed 
in  Philippine  law  for  the  misuse  of  public  funds  or  the  falsi- 
fication of  a  public  document  is  terribly  severe,  and  there  is 
a  little  band  of  white  men  in  Bilibid  prison  in  Manila  to-day 
because  of  their  venality  and  breach  of  trust.  Our  mission 
in  the  Philippines  is  based  upon  the  highest  principles  and 
we  have  always  striven  to  maintain  a  high  moral  tone  in  the 
government  personnel,  so  it  is  particularly  painful  to  the 
small  American  community  when,  as  happened  too  often  at 
first,  an  American  went  wrong. 

Though  the  Commission  proceeded  with  the  establishment 
of  civil  government  in  a  conspicuously  simple  manner  as 
much  cannot  be  said  of  the  Filipinos.  They  were  bent  upon 
making  the  most  of  a  rare  opportunity  for  the  enjoyment 
of  great  and  ceremonious  festivity. 

On  the  23d  of  February,  following  the  extraordinary 
celebration  of  Washington's  birthday,  the  Commission, 
accompanied  by  a  considerable  number  of  prominent  Fili- 
pinos and  by  several  of  the  ladies,  took  a  government  launch 
and  steamed  across  the  Bay  to  the  town  of  Balanga,  the 
capital  of  the  province  of  Bataan  which  lies  directly  opposite 
Manila  where  the  sun  goes  down  in  tropic  splendour  behind 
the  Meriveles  Mountains.  This  trip  was  a  new  experience 
for  me  and  was  the  beginning  of  my  long  acquaintance  with 
Filipino  hospitality. 

As  we  approached  the  Bataan  shore  there  were  splashes 
of  brilliant  colour  all  over  the  surface  of  the  Bay,  which,  on 
nearer  view,  turned  out  to  be  the  decorations  of  a  great  fleet 
of  bancas  coming  out  to  meet  us.  There  must  have  been  a 
hundred  or  more  and,  while  they  were  of  all  sizes,  some  of 
them  were  large  enough  to  hold  twenty  and  thirty  rowers. 
The  banca  is  a  long,  narrow  dugout  which  usually  looks  as  if 
it  were  just  about  to  sink.  Some  of  these  had  outriggers, 
some  had  not,  but  each  and  every  one  of  them  was  loaded  to 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

capacity,  and  each  was  covered  with  the  most  gorgeous  deco- 
rations. Bunting  and  paper  flowers  of  every  hue  were  mixed 
with  long  palm  leaves  and  branches  of  bamboo  and  every- 
thing in  the  nature  of  an  ornament  that  could  possibly  be 
used,  while  from  every  angle  and  at  every  point  fluttered 
small  American  flags,  some  of  them  home-made  and  only  ap- 
proximately correct.  Then  there  were  two  huge  flat  affairs 
with  decorated  awnings  over  them  which  we  found  were 
nothing  less  than  rafts  prepared  for  our  own  use,  the  water  in 
the  little  harbour  being  too  shallow  for  our  big  steam  launch. 
These  rafts  were  made  of  split  bamboo  flooring  lashed  to  the 
tops  of  large  bancas  and,  though  they  looked  exceedingly 
unsafe,  we  found  they  would  hold  as  many  as  could  stand 
upon  them  without  being  pushed  over  the  edge. 

In  ten  minutes  this  gay  and  unusual  fleet  had  surrounded 
us;  the  rafts  came  alongside  and  over  our  rails  clambered 
the  reception  committee,  a  half  dozen  Filipinos  in  more  or 
less  nondescript,  heavy  black  clothes  with  silk  hats !  Where 
these  garments  came  from  I  have  no  idea.  Most  of  the  hats 
looked  like  heirlooms,  just  as  the  silk  hats  of  our  own  hus- 
bands looked,  but  the  chief  concern  of  their  owners  seemed 
to  be  their  protection.  Never  have  I  seen  silk  hats  so 
cautiously  handled. 

Having  got  safely  aboard  the  launch  each  man  went 
through  a  deliberate  process  of  straightening  himself  out  and 
carefully  adjusting  his  attire  before  he  advanced  to  the  stern 
of  the  launch  where  we  waited  to  receive  him.  Then  there 
were  some  set  speeches  of  welcome  in  which  the  chief  senti- 
ment seemed  to  be  that  never  had  the  province  of  Bataan 
been  so  highly  honoured  and  that,  therefore,  it  and  all  it  con- 
tained was,  with  feelings  inexpressible,  laid  at  the  feet  of  the 
honourable  Commission.  Mr.  Fergusson  translated  the  flow- 
ers and  figures  of  oratory  and  all  the  soaring  flights  of  senti- 
mental generosity  into  literal  English,  then,  with  equal 
solemnity  and  impressiveness,  he  rendered  Mr.  Taft's  mat- 

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ter-of-fact,  though  cordial,  replies  into  a  marvellous  flow  of 
Spanish  eloquence. 

This  formality  disposed  of,  the  reception  committee 
invited  us  to  step  upon  the  pavilioned  raft  and  be  wafted 
ashore.  It  sounds  like  a  dignified  proceeding,  but  of  course 
it  was  not.  We  had  to  climb  over  the  rails  of  the  launch 
and,  more  or  less,  slide  to  a  secure  footing  on  the  frail  floor 
of  the  curious  craft.  Contrary  to  my  secret  expectations  it 
kept  afloat  and  we  were  soon  landed  at  a  little  fishing 
village  down  on  the  beach,  where  Army  ambulances  waited 
to  take  us  to  the  town  of  Balanga,  a  mile  inland.  Just  out- 
side of  Balanga  we  passed  under  a  great  bamboo  arch,  the 
sort  of  thing  the  Filipinos  erect  and  ornament  with  great 
skill  and  ingenuity.  This  one  was  so  thickly  decorated, 
however,  with  small  American  flags  that  little  of  its  intricate 
frame-work  was  visible.  A  piece  of  white  bunting  stretched 
across  the  top  of  it  bore,  in  large  letters,  the  inscription: 
"Glory  Honor  to  the  Commission." 

We  drove  into  the  town  and  found  the  place  en  fete.  I 
never  saw  so  many  American  flags  in  one  place  in  my  life. 
Four  thousand  of  them  had  been  bought  in  Manila  for  the 
occasion;  and  four  thousand  flags  go  a  long  way  in  decorat- 
ing a  small  provincial  town.  There  was  not  much  of  the 
town  left  uncovered. 

When  we  got  to  the  provincial  building  where  the  meet- 
ing was  to  be  held,  we  found  all  the  delegates  gathered  from 
the  different  villages  a-tiptoe  in  an  atmosphere  of  intense 
excitement.  Bataan  had  never  been  a  rich  province  and 
we  discovered  that  few  of  the  Filipinos  understood  Spanish. 
They  spoke  only  Tagalog.  This  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  province  had  been  for  generations  under  the  control  of 
the  Dominican  Friars  who  did  not  believe  in  encouraging  the 
natives  to  learn  Spanish.  In  consequence,  all  the  speeches 
had  to  be  translated  from  English  to  Spanish,  from  Spanish 
to  Tagalog,  and  vice  versa.  Felipe  Calderon,  the  Manila 

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lawyer  who  handled  the  San  Jose  College  case  for  the 
People,  acted  as  Tagalog  interpreter,  and  I  have  often  won- 
dered just  how  much  of  the  familiar  Spanish  hyperbole  was 
convertible  into  the  phrases  of  that  primitive  language.  It 
made  the  proceedings  very  long  and  tedious,  but  we  sat 
through  them  and  they  finally  came  to  an  end  with  much 
cheering  for  the  newly  appointed  officials. 

The  Filipinos  were  greatly  pleased  at  having  the  Commis- 
sioners bring  their  wives  and  daughters  along.  It  was 
new  to  them  and  they  were  not  slow  to  grasp  its  significance. 
Much  to  the  disgust  of  the  military  authorities  present,  we 
all  shook  hands  with  everybody  and  assumed  the  friendliest 
kind  of  attitude.  That  the  Army  officers  did  not  ap- 
prove of  our  cordiality  toward  the  Filipinos  can  hardly  be 
wondered  at.  They  had  been  subjected  to  the  risks  of  a 
campaign  of  ambush  and  assassination  for  many  months, 
and  even  then  they  were  trying  to  bring  in  a  band  of  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  insurrectos,  with  as  many  rifles,  who 
were  hiding  in  the  Meriveles  Mountains  and  preying  upon 
the  people ;  so,  it  was  natural  for  them  to  think  that  a  policy 
of  disdain  and  severity  was  the  only  one  suited  to  the  appar- 
ent unreliability  and  deceitfulness  of  the  native.  However, 
these  same  officers  very  shortly  admitted  to  us,  though  rather 
unwillingly,  that  our  mode  of  dealing  with  the  people  had 
had  an  extraordinary  effect  on  the  general  tone  in  Bataan. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  President  McKinley  communi- 
cated through  Secretary  Root  the  intention  of  the  Adminis- 
tration to  abolish  the  military  governorship  and  to  install  a 
civil  Governor  under  the  power  of  the  President  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief,  and  to  create  civil  departments  also. 
When  Mr.  Taft  received  a  cable  from  Secretary  Root  advis- 
ing him  of  this  fact,  he  went  to  see  General  MacArthur  for 
the  purpose  of  discussing  with  him  the  mode  of  procedure 
and  to  get  his  ideas  as  to  how  and  when  the  transfer  of 
power  should  be  made. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

The  General  had  begun  to  look  upon  the  work  of  the  Com- 
mission from  a  somewhat  less  prejudiced  angle  and  was  by 
this  time  freely  admitting  that  the  establishment  of  pro- 
vincial and  municipal  governments  was  having  a  good  effect. 
He,  of  course,  did  not  wish  to  surrender  his  power  as  military 
governor  and  remain  in  the  Islands  in  a  less  important  po- 
sition, but  he  thought  somebody  would  soon  be  named  to  suc- 
ceed him  and  that  the  proper  time  for  the  transfer  was  after 
his  successor  arrived.  Mr.  Taft  was  going,  with  the  other 
members  of  the  Commission,  on  a  long  organising  trip 
through  the  southern  islands,  and  he  thought  he  could  not 
be  ready  for  the  adjustment  of  affairs  before  the  end  of 
June,  so  it  was  decided  that  the  civil  Governor  should  be 
inaugurated  on  the  4th  of  July,  and  my  husband  soon  re- 
ceived assurances  that  he  would  be  asked  to  serve  in  that 
capacity. 


155 


CHAPTER  VIII 

AN    HISTORIC    TRIP 

THE  Philippine  Islands  as  mere  territory  do  not  seem  to 
have  impressed  themselves  very  forcibly  upon  the  general 
American  mind,  and  the  average  person  one  talks  with 
really  has  but  a  vague  conception  of  their  importance  as  re- 
gards number  and  area.  There  are  enthusiasts  who  do  not 
hesitate  to  declare  for  the  edification  of  wondering  friends 
that  there  are  more  than  three  thousand  islands  in  the 
group,  but  it  is  necessary  to  explain  that  a  vast  majority  of 
these  are  mere  dots  upon  the  map  not  to  be  considered  in 
the  sum  total  of  habitable  area.  And  yet  the  archipelago 
is  one  of  the  finest  on  earth  and  not  much  smaller  in  point 
of  arable  land  than  the  whole  Japanese  island  empire  with 
its  fifty-odd  millions  of  inhabitants. 

It  is  a  rather  widely  distributed  territory  and  its  popula- 
tion, some  seven  millions  six  hundred  thousand  in  number, 
comprises  a  variety  of  peoples,  each  of  which  has  its  own 
language  and  its  own  traditions,  though  all  Christian  Fil- 
ipinos are  much  alike  in  general  characteristics. 

Personally  to  superintend  the  establishment  of  civil  gov- 
ernment throughout  the  Islands  at  a  time  when  many  of  the 
people  were  still  in  sympathy  with  armed  resistance  to  our 
authority  was  a  tremendous  task  for  the  Commission  to  un- 
dertake, but  it  was  thought  that  only  through  direct  contact 
could  anything  like  sympathetic  understanding  be  obtained. 
Tranquillity  had,  as  speedily  as  possible,  to  be  restored,  and 
while  the  ungentle  persuasion  of  armed  force  continued  for 
some  time  to  be  a  necessity,  the  methods  adopted  by  the  civil 
officials  never  failed  to  make  a  visible  and  lasting  impres- 
sion. 

It  was  decided  in  the  beginning  that  the  ladies  should 
accompany  the  Commissioners  on  their  long  organising  trip 

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through  the  southern  islands  and  the  success  of  our  visit  to 
Bataan  proved  to  us  that  as  members  of  the  governmental 
party  we  could  make  ourselves  distinctly  useful. 

We  wanted  to  get  away  much  earlier  than  we  did  but  the 
exigencies  of  the  still  active  military  operations  made  it  im- 
possible for  the  Commanding  General  to  supply  us  with  a 
transport,  so  it  was  not  until  the  tenth  of  March  that  we 
started  out  on  what  proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  unique 
expeditions  of  my  life. 

It  begins  to  get  very  hot  in  the  Philippines  in  March  and 
this  being  our  first  "hot  season"  in  the  Islands  we  felt  it 
particularly.  It  is  always  warm  enough  but  there  is  a 
variety  in  the  temperature  which  one  soon  begins  to  appreci- 
ate. From  November  to  February  it  is  almost  always 
delightful,  just  warm  enough;  and  sometimes,  in  the  even- 
ings, cool  enough  for  light  wraps.  But  in  March  the  heat 
becomes  intense  and  not  until  the  rains  begin  in  June  or 
July  can  anything  pleasant  truthfully  be  said  about  the 
climate. 

However,  this  southern  island  trip  was  not  a  pleasure 
jaunt  and  it  was  of  such  historic  interest  that  none  of  us 
was  willing,  out  of  consideration  for  personal  comfort,  to 
forego  the  privilege  of  making  it. 

General  MacArthur  assigned  to  the  Commission  for  the 
southern  trip  the  transport  Sumner^  which  contained  suf- 
ficient cabin  space  to  accommodate  in  comfort  a  large  party. 
Besides  all  the  ladies  in  the  civil  government,  the  Commis- 
sion had  invited  some  newspaper  men  and  a  number  of 
prominent  Filipinos  who  were  pledged  to  the  restoration  of 
peace  under  American  control.  Among  them  were  represent- 
atives of  all  the  peoples  in  the  southern  islands  to  be  visited. 
Then,  too,  we  all  took  our  children.  We  had  to;  and  it  was 
fortunate  for  us  that  they  were  such  experienced  and  adapt- 
able little  people  else  they  might  have  proved  a  great 
nuisance  in  such  a  mixed  party  and  on  a  trip  where  we  were 

157 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

to  stop  at  twenty-odd  different  towns  and  attend  innumer- 
able meetings,  banquetes  and  bailes.  But,  as  it  was,  they 
gave  us  little  trouble.  Mrs.  Moses'  little  daughter,  who 
had  just  come  out  from  San  Francisco,  my  daughter  Helen 
and  my  son  Robert,  Mr.  Fergusson's  son  Arthur  and  young 
Jack  Branagan,  were  all  about  the  same  age,  and  they  never 
tired  of  devising  games  that  could  be  played  around  such 
parts  of  the  decks  as  were  not  infested  with  grown-ups. 
Then,  to  while  away  the  hours  when  their  elders  were  at- 
tending ceremonies  on  shore,  they  explored  bays  and  rivers 
in  a  sailboat  which  was  rigged  out  for  them  by  Captain 
Lyman,  of  the  Sumner^  a  most  fatherly  man  who  seemed  to 
enjoy  this  unusual  opportunity  to  indulge  his  love  for  chil- 
dren. On  the  beaches  they  collected  an  infinite  variety  of 
shells,  corals  and  malodorous  marine  curiosities,  but  these 
they  kept  on  the  lower  decks  where  they  could  enjoy  them 
in  peace.  Charlie  was,  of  course,  the  ship's  baby.  He  was 
younger  than  either  of  the  Worcester  children  and,  I  am 
afraid,  somewhat  less  well  behaved.  He  scorned  their 
rather  quiet  amusements  and  led  a  strenuous  and  indepen- 
dent existence  which  gave  me  some  uneasiness.  He  rushed 
around  over  the  ship  with  the  utmost  carelessness,  deliver- 
ing orders  in  a  strange  jargon  to  his  little  Filipino  nurse, 
who  was  always  rushing  after  him  just  far  enough  behind  to 
be  utterly  useless  in  case  anything  should  happen  to  him. 
It  was  a  certainty  that  should  he  fall  overboard  she  would 
reach  the  rail  just  in  time  to  see  him  sink.  Some  of  the 
deck  rails  were  low,  but  strange  to  say  he  came  through 
without  accident.  I  think  Charlie  must  have  acquired 
some  of  the  surefootedness  of  a  cat.  He  had  been  twice 
around  the  world  before  he  was  eight  years  old,  and  that  he 
managed  to  grow  up  into  an  unscarred  and  quite  decorous 
young  man  was  certainly  not  due  to  natural  caution  on  his 
part  nor  to  over-restraint  on  ours. 

It  was  an  interesting  party  gathered  on  the  Sumner. 

158   ' 


<  a: 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Among  others  were  the  Atkinsons.  Mr.  Atkinson  was  the 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  who  had  recently  come 
out  from  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  and  who  was  mak- 
ing this  trip  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  what  steps  should  or 
could  be  taken  to  introduce  a  system  of  public  instruction  in 
a  practically  schoolless  land.  The  Commission  had  appro- 
priated just  as  much  for  the  establishment  of  public  schools 
as  the  treasury  could  spare,  this  being  the  natural  American 
thing  to  do  under  the  circumstances,  and  no  time  was  to  be 
lost  in  getting  down  to  practical  work.  And,  I  should  like  to 
note,  that  in  no  enterprise  which  America  has  undertaken  in 
the  Philippines  have  we  received  such  enthusiastic  support 
and  co-operation  from  the  Filipinos  as  in  this.  That  they 
were  tremendously  alive  to  the  value  of  the  educational 
privileges  offered  to  them  is  proved  by  the  phenomenal  suc- 
cess attained  by  the  public  school  system  which  was  intro- 
duced. District  schools,  village  and  town  schools,  the  high 
school  and  the  normal  school  are  to-day  as  much  a  cherished 
part  of  Philippine  life  as  such  institutions  are  a  part  of  the 
great  "American  idea"  in  the  United  States.  And  in  addi- 
tion to  these  a  University  has  been  founded  which  promises 
to  become  one  of  the  finest  institutions  of  learning  in  the 
whole  East.  Whatever  may  be  said  about  the  American 
Constitution  there  can  be  no  dispute  about  the  fact  that  edu- 
cation follows  the  flag. 

The  Filipinos  in  our  party,  who  were  invited  to  go  in 
order  that  they  might  give  the  Commission  information  and 
advice  and  also,  in  some  measure,  explain  to  their  own  com- 
patriots the  intentions  of  the  American  Government,  in- 
cluded Chief  Justice  Arellano,  the  two  Supreme  Court 
Judges,  Llorente  and  Araneta,  -and  the  originators  of  the 
Federal  Party,  Don  Benito  Legarda,  Doctor  Pardo  de 
Tavera  and  General  Flores.  The  Federal  Party  expected 
to  organise  in  the  far  provinces  and  it  was  hoped  this  would 
have  a  healthy  effect  on  insular  politics.  There  were  about 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

sixty  of  us  in  all  and  I  think  we  must  have  seemed  rather 
a  formidable  host  to  some  of  the  nervous  reception  commit- 
tees that  were  forced  to  encounter  us. 

It  was  all  wonderfully  interesting.  Our  first  stop  was  at 
Lucena  in  the  Province  of  Tayabas.  We  arrived  there  in 
the  late  afternoon  so  we  had  to  lie  at  anchor  until  next 
morning,  but  while  the  daylight  lasted  we  gazed  eagerly  at 
the  shore  through  our  field  glasses  and  were  astonished  to  see 
the  crowds  of  Filipinos  not  only  lining  the  beach  but  wading 
in  throngs  out  into  the  Bay,  as  far  as  they  safely  could.  It 
was  as  if  they  had  decided  to  walk  out  to  meet  us.  And 
the  town  was  decorated,  decorated  magnificently.  There 
were  bamboo  arches  a-flutter  with  flags  and  flags  flying 
everywhere,  to  say  nothing  of  bunting  and  palm  leaves  and 
myriads  of  gay  paper  streamers. 

Bright  and  early  the  next  morning  the  reception  commit- 
tee came  out  in  a  steam  launch,  accompanied  by  Colonel 
Gardiner,  the  American  Army  officer  in  command  of  the 
garrison.  The  Filipinos,  immaculate  little  ex-insurrectos  to 
a  man,  proudly  climbed  the  gangway,  stopped  to  adjust  their 
attire,  then  proceeded  to  bid  us  welcome  with  the  utmost 
grace.  Their  spokesman  made  the  usual  cordial  speech, 
which  Mr.  Fergusson  solemnly  interpreted.  He  laid  at  our 
feet  everything  to  which  he  or  the  town  of  Lucena  had  any 
claim,  and  assured  us  that  the  honour  of  our  visit  was  most 
deeply  appreciated  by  the  entire  community;  then  he  and 
his  companions  stood  smiling  before  us  while  Mr.  Fergusson 
turned  my  husband's  simple  words  of  thanks  and  apprecia- 
tion into  Spanish  metaphor  and  hyperbole. 

I  have  often  thought  that  America  never  could  have  won 
the  friendship  of  the  Filipinos  if  it  hadn't  been  for  Mr. 
Arthur  Fergusson' s  clever  tongue.  My  husband's  smile  and 
frank  geniality  accomplished  much,  but  his  interpreter's 
suavity  struck  a  deeper  and  more  familiar  chord  and  together 
they  created  harmony.  They  were  a  remarkable  pair  as 

160 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

they  stood  side  by  side.  Neither  of  them  weighed  less  than 
three  hundred  pounds,  but  Mr.  Taft  was  blond  and  ruddy, 
Anglo-Saxon  no  less  in  appearance  than  in  manner  and 
speech,  while  Mr.  Fergusson  was  dark  and  rather  dashing 
and  seemed  naturally  to  assume  the  lofty  mien  of  a  Spaniard 
when  he  spoke  the  beautiful  Spanish  tongue.  Mr.  Fergus- 
son  became  Executive  Secretary  of  the  Islands  when  Civil 
Government  was  established  and  continued  in  that  office 
until  his  death  about  six  years  ago.  His  loss  to  the  men 
who  were  then  doing  America's  work  in  the  Philippines  was 
incalculable  and  the  whole  community,  Filipinos  and  Amer- 
icans alike,  joined  in  the  warmest  tributes  to  his  memory  that 
have  ever  been  paid  to  an  American  in  the  Islands. 

When  we  arrived  at  the  landing  in  Lucena  we  found  a 
motley  throng  of  vehicles  awaiting  us,  and  were  greeted  by  a 
roar  of  vociferous  speech  from  the  cocheros  which  sounded 
like  imprecations,  but  which  turned  out  to  be  the  Filipino 
equivalent  for  the  deafening  "Cab,  lady!  Cab,  sir!"  with 
which  travellers  are  welcomed  at  so  many  American  railway 
stations. 

Mr.  Taft  and  I,  who  seemed,  in  the  opinions  of  our  hosts, 
to  be  the  only  persons  of  real  importance  present,  were  cere- 
moniously escorted  to  a  diminutive  Victoria  decorated  with 
flowers,  while  the  rest  of  the  party  indiscriminately  clam- 
bered into  the  nearest  conveyances.  Then  started  a  mad 
race  down  an  execrable  road,  where  the  holes  and  ruts  were 
so  filled  with  dust  that  there  was  no  way  of  foreseeing  or 
preparing  for  the  bumps.  Our  carriage,  being  a  sedate 
"flower  parade"  all  by  itself,  was  soon  left  far  behind  by 
the  sportier  two  wheel  vehicles,  and  when  we  arrived  at  the 
Municipal  Building,  where  vthe  meeting  was  to  be  held, 
confusion  reigned.  I  have  no  doubt  that  several  private 
secretaries  had  been  greeted  as  the  honourable  "Presidente 
del  Commission,"  but  if  so,  their  fleeting  honours  detracted 
nothing  from  the  welcome  we  received. 

161 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

The  streets  were  crowded  with  men,  women  and  children 
waving  flags  and  shrilly  cheering,  and  just  in  front  of  the 
hall  were  drawn  up  two  Filipino  bands  dressed  in  gorgeous, 
heavy  uniforms  decorated  with  such  scraps  of  gold  lace  as 
they  had  been  able  to  procure.  Together  they  struck  up  the 
"Star  Spangled  Banner,"  but  they  kept  together  for  just 
about  two  bars,  each  leader  having  his  own  fixed  idea  as  to 
the  proper  tempo.  One  band  finished  several  bars  ahead  of 
the  other,  and  immediately,  without  so  much  as  a  lowering  of 
instruments,  it  hurled  itself  into  "A  Hot  Time  in  the  Old 
Town  To-night,"  whereupon  the  uplift  of  "Don't  you  hear 
those  bells  go  ding-a-ling"  collided  merrily  with  the  solemn 
sentiment  of  "Long  may  it  wave !"  Yet  nobody  laughed. 
We  were  cultivating  a  sobriety  of  demeanour  because  we 
knew  we  were  dealing  with  a  people  whose  ears  heard  not 
and  whose  eyes  saw  not  as  we  hear  and  see. 

The  meeting  which  followed  our  spectacular  reception  was 
exceedingly  interesting.  The  questions  of  the  Commis- 
sioners elicited  the  information  that  Tayabas  had  been  com- 
pletely pacified  for  more  than  a  year,  although  the  sur- 
rounding provinces,  Cavite,  Laguna  and  Batangas,  were 
among  the  most  unruly  in  the  Archipelago.  This  happy 
state  of  affairs  seems  to  have  been  produced  by  Colonel 
Gardiner,  in  command  of  the  garrison,  who  had  displayed 
great  tact  in  dealing  with  the  peacefully  inclined  Filipinos 
and  absolute  military  rigidity  in  his  attitude  toward  the  in- 
surrectos.  That  his  methods  had  gained  popular  approval 
was  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  every  town  in  the  province 
petitioned  the  Commission  to  make  him  Governor.  The 
requisite  permission  to  do  this  having  been  obtained  from 
General  MacArthur,  who,  as  Military  Governor,  had  spe- 
cially to  detail  army  officers  for  such  service,  it  was  done 
amid  general  rejoicing  made  violent  by  brassy  discords  from 
the  jubilant  bands  which  nearly  drove  me  out  of  the 

building. 

162 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

There  were  many  speeches  and  Mr.  Taft,  as  usual,  read 
and  explained  the  Provincial  Code  to  the  assembly.  After 
I  had  listened  almost  daily  for  more  than  six  weeks  to  that 
dry-as-dust  document  I  was  sure  that  I  could  repeat  it  back- 
ward if  I  tried.  Mr.  Taft  finished  his  speech  with  a  neat 
little  summing  up  of  conditions  in  general, — mellifluously 
embellished  by  Mr.  Fergusson, — then  he  introduced  Chief 
Justice  Arellano  as  the  ablest  lawyer  in  the  Islands  and  a 
man  whom  any  country  would  be  proud  to  own;  which  was 
literally  true.  The  Chief  Justice  spoke  for  some  time, 
earnestly,  appealingly,  and  with  great  dignity,  and  he  was 
listened  to  with  reverence.  I  had  hoped  that  his  speech 
would  end  the  proceedings,  but  this  was  only  the  beginning 
of  my  experience  with  the  Filipino  love  of  oratory  and  I 
never  thereafter  entertained  any  optimistic  ideas  with  regard 
to  time  limits. 

But,  as  all  things  must,  the  meeting  came  to  an  end  and, 
stretching  our  weary  bodies,  we  accepted  an  invitation  to 
view  the  town.  Our  progress  was  triumphal.  In  our 
flower-decked  Victoria,  with  the  municipal  presidente  on 
the  little  seat  in  front  of  us,  Mr.  Taft  and  I  moved  slowly 
along,  one  band  in  front  of  us  blaring  out  "A  Hot  Time  in 
the  Old  Town"  with  all  the  force  of  its  lungs,  and  the  other 
behind  us  doing  its  best  to  make  itself  heard  and  appre- 
ciated in  a  wholly  original  rendition  of  "Ta-ra-ra-ra-boom- 
de-ay."  Then  came  the  other  members  of  our  party  in 
nondescript  vehicles  which  jolted  and  creaked. 

Speaking  of  Filipino  bands,  it  may  be  thought  that  my 
partial  description  of  those  in  Lucena  is  exaggerated.  Not 
at  all.  There  are  more  bands  in  the  Philippines,  perhaps, 
than  any  other  one  thing.  The  Filipinos  as  a  people  are 
extremely  musical  and,  in  many  instances,  have  proved 
themselves  capable  of  reaching  a  high  point  of  musical 
proficiency,  but  in  the  early  days  of  American  occupation 
a  vast  majority  of  the  musicians  were  the  rankest  amateurs 

163 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

who  played  "by  ear"  only.  They  had  never  been  taught, 
but  they  could  play,  after  a  fashion,  anything  that  any- 
body could  whistle,  sing  or  pick  out  for  them  on  any  instru- 
ment. They  had  listened  to  the  American  regimental 
bands  and  they  had  made  selection  for  their  own  repertoires 
of  such  pieces  as  were  easiest  to  play,  hence  the  popularity 
of  "A  Hot  Time  in  the  Old  Town,"  "Ta-ra-ra-ra-boom-de- 
ay,"  "Won't  You  Come  Home,  Bill  Bailey"  and  things  of 
like  character.  They  did  not  know  the  words,  or  the  "senti- 
ment" of  the  songs;  they  knew  only  the  tunes,  and  these 
they  played  at  all  times,  for  occasions  either  solemn  or  gay. 
Of  my  own  experience  I  can  testify  that  "A  Hot  Time  in 
the  Old  Town"  makes  a  perfectly  good  funeral  march  when 
reduced  to  a  measure  sufficiently  lugubrious. 

It  didn't  take  us  long  to  see  the  town  and  when  my  ears 
could  endure  the  discords  no  longer  I  explained  to  the 
pleasant  little  presidente  that  I  thought  it  was  necessary 
for  the  ladies  to  return  to  the  transport  for  a  rest  before  it 
was  time  to  dress  for  the  evening  festivities.  He  protested 
that  the  town  was  ours,  that  his  house  and  everything  in  it 
belonged  solely  to  us,  but  I  was  backed  up  by  my  husband 
and  the  ladies  finally  were  permitted  to  go  out  to  the 
Sumner  for  a  short  respite.  No  such  luck  for  the  men. 
They  had  to  attend  a  prodigious  luncheon,  an  afternoon 
banquete  really,  and  then  continue,  for  the  rest  of  the  day, 
their  interviews  with  Lucena  citizens  and  American  Army 
officers.  And,  be  it  remembered,  it  was  insufferably  hot. 

The  banquete  and  baile  that  evening  were  typical  Fili- 
pino entertainments,  novelties  to  me  then  and  intensely 
interesting.  It  was  a  procession,  a  meeting,  a  banquete  and 
a  baile  every  day  for  nearly  seven  weeks  unless  by  a  happy 
turn  of  events  it  became  necessary  for  us  to  sail  for  our 
next  port  in  the  afternoon  instead  of  at  midnight  as  we  gen- 
erally did.  Under  such  circumstances,  if  any  special  enter- 
tainments had  been  prepared  for  the  evening,  such  as  torch- 

164 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

light  processions,  illuminations,  or  fireworks,  they  were  duly 
produced  in  broad  daylight,  thereby  losing  much  in  general 
effect  no  doubt,  but  nothing  in  their  proof  of  friendly  in- 
tentions. 

Processions  and  meetings  may  be  just  processions  and 
meetings,  but  banquet es  and  bailes  are  not  just  banquets 
and  balls,  and  that  is  why  I  always  refer  to  them  by  their 
Spanish  names. 

We  arrived  at  the  banquete  in  Luceha  at  seven  o'clock 
and  found,  in  a  great  open  room  in  a  public  building  of 
some  sort,  a  long  table  laden  with  mysteries.  In  the  centre 
was  a  tremendous  ornament,  made  entirely  of  toothpicks, 
built  up  to  represent  a  flower  garden.  Whoever  made  it 
was  a  genius  with  both  imagination  and  delicacy  of  touch. 
All  along  both  sides  of  the  table  were  strange,  highly  or- 
namental and  formidable  looking  dishes  which  were  evi- 
dently meant  to  be  eaten.  I  didn't  know  what  they  were, 
but  having  acquired  a  cosmopolitan  attitude  toward  food 
I  was  not  at  all  dismayed.  My  chief  concern  related  to 
the  fact  that  a  Filipino  host  expects  one  to  eat  at  least  a 
little  of  everything  that  is  served  and  through  endless 
courses  of  elaborately  prepared  meats  one's  appetite  natur- 
ally becomes  jaded. 

The  most  important  and  distinguished  Filipinos  did  not 
sit  down  at  table  with  us.  It  is  el  costumbre  del  pais  for 
the  Filipino  host  to  wait  on  his  guests,  to  hover  about  and 
see  that  he  enjoys  what  is  given  him,  and  until  one  gets  used 
to  it  it  is  most  disconcerting.  The  presidentes  and  fiscals 
and  generals  and  other  illustrados  were  not  as  skilful  as 
trained  servants  and  I  found  myself  leaning  this  way  and 
that  in  momentary  expectation  that  one  of  them,  in  his 
excitement,  would  accidentally  slip  some  sticky  mixture 
down  my  back.  There  were  speeches  of  course;  there  al- 
ways are ;  and  then  more  speeches,  but  we  had  to  get  to  the 
baile,  so  they  were  not  too  long  drawn  out. 

165 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

The  baile  was  given  in  the  Municipal  Building  where  the 
meeting  of  the  morning  was  held,  and  when  we  arrived 
we  found  the  hall  quite  filled  with  guests.  The  Filipino 
women  didn't  display  so  many  jewels  and  fine  garments  in 
those  days  as  now  because,  in  certain  quarters,  the  insur- 
rectos  were  still  levying  tribute,  but  the  girls  and  women, 
many  of  them  quite  pretty,  were  very  gay  in  long,  trailing 
calico  skirts  and  jusi,  sinamay  or  pina  camisas,  while  the 
men  were  attired  in  all  manner  of  garments  from  calico 
and  white  linen  to  black  cloth. 

The  men  are  nearly  all  excellent  dancers,  but  the  women 
are  hampered  somewhat  in  the  ordinary  "round  dances" 
by  their  foot  gear.  They  don't  wear  shoes, — nor  stock- 
ings either.  At  least,  they  didn't  in  those  days.  They 
thrust  their  bare  toes  into  little  slippers  called  chinelas  and 
cuchos,  which  look  for  all  the  world  like  fancy  bed-slippers. 
There  are  two  kinds:  cuchos  being  considered  very  "dressy" 
and  having  heels  which  clatter  on  the  floor,  while  chinelas 
are  heelless  and  make  a  scuffing,  shuffling  noise. 

The  first  dance  of  the  evening  at  any  baile  is  the  rigodon 
which  is  really  the  national  dance  of  the  Philippines.  I 
am  not  going  to  try  to  describe  it  because  I  know  I  can't, 
though  I  have  danced  it  hundreds  of  times.  It  is  the  real 
ceremony  on  such  an  occasion.  It  can  be  likened  to  an  old- 
fashioned  quadrille,  but  the  square  is  made  up  of  as  many 
couples  opposite  each  other  as  there  is  space  and  there  are 
couples.  There  are  a  number  of  graceful  and  somewhat  in- 
tricate but  stately  figures.  It  is  a  dance  unique  and,  as  far  as 
I  know,  confined  to  the  Philippine  Islands.  I'm  afraid  we 
made  but  a  poor  display  in  our  first  attempts  at  the  rigodon, 
but  by  dint  of  watching  others  night  after  night  both  my 
husband  and  I  became  most  proficient  at  it.  I  always  had 
for  my  partner  the  most  conspicuous  illustrado  in  any  com- 
munity, while  Mr.  Taf t  conferred  the  honour  of  his  attend- 

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ance  upon  the  lady  of  highest  rank.  This  was  important 
as  a  recognition  of  the  established  formalities. 

We  left  Lucena  pretty  much  exhausted  and  slightly 
aghast  at  the  prospect  of  sixty  consecutive  days  of  such 
strenuous  festivities.  Our  route  on  the  map  lay  like  a 
tangled  thread  throughout  the  archipelago,  and  its  imme- 
diate trend  was  toward  the  Equator,  further  and  further 
south.  Every  point  marked  as  a  stopping  place  meant  a 
full  programme  of  business  and  festivities,  but,  hot  as  it 
was,  not  one  of  us  willingly  would  have  turned  back. 
There  was  strong  fascination  in  the  very  names  of  the 
places  we  were  bound  for. 

First  came  Boak  on  the  island  of  Marinduque.  Who 
wouldn't  endure  a  little  discomfort  for  the  sake  of  seeing 
Boak^  This  province  could  not  yet  be  organised  because  it 
was  not  sufficiently  peaceful  for  the  successful  introduction 
of  civil  government.  The  Commissioners,  after  endless 
interviews  with  Army  officers  and  with  leading  Filipinos 
who  were  eager  for  the  restoration  of  normal  conditions, 
promised  to  return  to  the  province  on  the  way  back  to 
Manila  and  complete  its  organisation  if,  by  that  time,  cer- 
tain stipulations  should  have  been  complied  with.  This 
meant  the  bringing  in  of  a  couple  of  hundred  insurrecto 
rifles  and  the  gathering  together  of  properly  accredited  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people  from  all  parts  of  the  island.  We 
left  behind  us  a  disappointed  but  a  determined  town,  and 
when  we  returned  nearly  seven  weeks  later  we  found  such 
a  difference  as  proved  the  wisdom  of  delay. 

The  Commissioners  were  really  walking  in  the  dark. 
Only  through  personal  investigation  could  they  learn  the 
exact  conditions  in  any  town  or  province  and  this  investi- 
gation had  always  to  precede  any  definite  action  on  their 
part.  This  made  the  proceedings  long  and  arduous  for 
them  and  drew  the  days  out  endlessly  for  the  rest  of  us. 

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Romblon,  Masbate,  Iloilo,  Bacolod;  each  with  its  distinct 
problem,  each  with  its  own  impassioned  orators,  and  each 
offering  boundless  hospitality;  we  left  them  all  in  better 
condition,  we  hoped,  than  we  found  them  and,  certainly, 
we  carried  away  from  each  in  turn  a  feeling  of  great  friend- 
liness and  gratitude  for  the  courtesies  they  so  enthusiastic- 
ally extended. 

From  Bacolod,  in  oriental  Negros,  we  set  our  course 
straight  south  to  Jolo,  to  the  Sulu  Islands,  to  the  realm  of 
the  comic  opera  sultan,  and  we  woke  up  one  brilliant  morn- 
ing to  find  ourselves  in  the  prettiest  harbour  imaginable  and 
in  the  midst  of  scenes  which  we  could  not  believe  belonged 
to  the  Philippine  world.  We  were  in  Moroland.  Straight 
before  us,  in  the  curve  of  the  beautiful  bay,  lay  a  little  white 
city,  surrounded  by  bastioned  walls  which  looked  age-old, 
and  backed  by  soft  green  hills  and  groves  of  tall  cocoanut 
palms.  A  high  white  watch  tower  at  the  end  of  a  long  pier 
reminded  one  of  piratical  days  and  of  Spain's  never-end- 
ing troubles  with  her  Mohammedan  subjects.  Off  to  the 
right,  against  the  farthest  shore,  was  the  strangest  collection 
of  habitations  I  had  ever  seen.  To  be  told  that  the  Moros 
live  on  the  water  is  to  imagine  them  living  in  boats,  but 
these  were  houses  built  far  out  in  the  water,  perched  up 
on  frail  wooden  stilts  and  joined  together  by  crooked  and 
rickety  bamboo  bridges. 

The  harbour  was  full  of  curious  small  craft;  high  prowed 
and  beautifully  carved  war  junks,  long,  graceful  praos  and 
slender  canoes  with  bamboo  outriggers,  nearly  all  carrying 
sails  of  fantastic  design  and  brilliant  hues.  Indeed,  there 
was  colour  everywhere.  Everything  afloat  was  decorated 
in  gaudy  silks  and  pennants,  the  American  flag  predom- 
inating, while  all  the  Moros  who  wore  anything  except  a 
loin  cloth  were  attired  in  costumes  which  were  lively  and 
strikingly  original.  These  were  made,  for  the  most  part, 

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of  rich  silks  of  native  weave  in  stripes  or  plaids  of  vivid, 
crude  greens,  reds  and  yellows,  and  from  neck  to  ankle  the 
more  elegant  ones  were  so  tight  that  one  wondered  how 
they  stood  the  strain.  Around  his  waist  each  man  wore  a 
bright  silk  sash  under  which  was  thrust  a  long  cruel  look- 
ing knife  in  an  ornamental  and  curiously  shaped  scabbard. 

The  picturesque  fleet  quickly  surrounded  the  Sumner  and 
while  we  watched  the  lithe,  naked  boys  diving  into  the  clear 
depths  of  the  bay  for  coins  that  were  thrown  overboard 
for  the  purpose  of  testing  their  prowess,  the  American  Army 
officers  came  aboard  to  bid  us  welcome  to  Jolo. 

They  explained  that  the  Sultan  of  Sulu  had  given  them 
some  diplomatic  difficulties  which,  they  were  glad  to  say, 
they  had  been  able  to  overcome.  He  had  at  first  decided 
to  play  the  haughty  monarch  and  to  extend  a  royal  invita- 
tion to  the  American  officials  to  pay  their  respects  to  him 
at  his  "palace."  But  a  little  reasoning  had  convinced  him 
that  the  Commissioners  were  the  accredited  representatives 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States  whose  sovereignty 
he  acknowledged  and  that  it  was  therefore  his  duty  to  call 
on  them,  so,  it  was  announced,  he  was  on  his  way  to  the 
landing  where  the  officers'  launch  waited  to  bring  him  out 
to  the  Sumner. 

Several  large  war  junks  carrying  different  chiefs,  or 
dattos,  preceded  the  imperial  visitor  and  these  men  came 
aboard  without  waiting  for  His  Majesty.  We  found  them 
extremely  entertaining.  They  were  by  far  the  most  pic- 
turesque figures  we  had  seen,  and  utterly  unlike  Filipinos. 
They  were  of  a  different  build,  lithe,  active  and  graceful, 
with  a  free  and  defiant  gaze  which  offered  a  strong  contrast 
to  the  soft-eyed  modesty  of  the  Christian  tribes.  In  their 
sashes  they  all  carried  long  knives  called  barongs^  campildns 
and  krises,  which  Mr.  Worcester  induced  some  of  them  to 
exhibit  to  our  delighted  eyes.  They  were  of  the  most 

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exquisite  workmanship  and  design,  inlaid,  some  of  them, 
with  gold  and  silver,  and  with  hilts  of  hardwood  beautifully 
carved. 

Finally  the  officers'  launch  put  out  from  the  dock  and 
we  knew  that  the  Sultan  was  approaching.  As  he  came 
alongside  the  Sumner  he  received  a  salute  of  seventeen 
guns  while  we  all  stood  by  holding  our  ears  and  stiffening 
our  nerves  against  the  deafening  shock.  We  were  expect- 
ing some  one  similar  in  appearance  to  our  friends  the  dattos^ 
except  that  we  were  sure  he  would  be  accoutred  in  three 
times  as  much  barbaric  splendour.  Fancy  our  disappoint- 
ment then,  when  there  emerged  from  the  low  awning  of 
the  launch  a  figure  quite  commonplace;  a  very  short,  very 
black  little  man  in  a  heavy  uniform  of  black  cloth  embroi- 
dered in  gold  braid,  not  unlike  the  uniform  of  a  British 
Consul.  He  was  awkward  and  homely  and  he  had  shiny 
black  teeth;  that  is  how  I  remember  him.  He  had  two 
attendants  who  served  only  to  accentuate  his  own  insignifi- 
cance. The  Commission  got  nothing  out  of  him  either. 
He  had  none  of  the  polish  and  gentlemanly  manners  of  the 
Filipino  leaders,  and  conversation  of  any  kind  with  him 
was  found  to  be  extremely  difficult.  Almost  the  only  inter- 
esting remark  he  made  was  to  invite  the  ladies  of  our  party 
to  call  on  his  many  wives,  a  thing  I  should  have  greatly 
enjoyed,  but  which  was  impossible  because  the  Sultan's 
"palace"  was  back  over  the  hills,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
island,  a  long  way  from  Jolo. 

The  problem  of  the  government  of  the  territory  in- 
habited by  the  Moros  in  a  measure  adjusted  itself.  These 
Mohammedans  have  always  been  unruly  and  independent 
and  were  never  wholly  conquered  by  the  Spaniards,  and 
they  absolutely  refused,  as  they  have  since  continued  to  do, 
to  be  placed  under  Filipino  control.  So  it  was  decided  to 
detach  them  from  the  general  organisation  and  to  place 
them  under  a  semi-military  system  with  an  American  Army 

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A   MORO   DATU    WITH    HIS  RETINUE,    AND   THE    FAVORITE    WIFE    OF 
A    DATU    WITH    HER    MAIDS-IX-WAITIXG 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

officer  of  high  rank  in  charge  in  the  dual  capacity  of  Gov- 
ernor and  Commanding  General  of  Troops  in  the  Moro 
Province.  This  system  was  developed  to  a  point  where  a 
high  state  of  efficiency  obtained  in  the  government  to  the 
complete  satisfaction  of  nearly  everybody.  To  solve  the 
problem  of  juramentado,  or  religious  fanatic  outbreaks,  a 
general  order  for  the  disarmament  of  Moros  had  to  be 
enforced,  but  only  a  comparatively  small  number  of  natives 
took  part  in  the  armed  resistance.  For  all  of  them  it  was 
hard,  no  doubt,  to  have  to  surrender  their  beloved  and  time- 
honoured  weapons,  but  the  wisest  among  them  recognised 
the  necessity  of  obedience  for  the  sake  of  the  general  good. 
If  this  had  not  been  so  it  would  have  been  vastly  more  dif- 
ficult to  make  the  order  effective.  These  wise  ones  are 
to-day  everywhere  busy  upholding  the  American  policy  of 
establishing  markets  and  schools  and  honest  trade  relations, 
and  in  preaching  to  their  people  that,  for  the  first  time  in 
their  history,  they  are  being  fairly  and  justly  dealt  with. 
They  cling  to  American  protection  with  determined  faith, 
telling  us  in  plain  words  that  if  we  leave  them  they  will 
fight  their  neighbours.  So,  whatever  we  may  do  with  the 
Philippine  Islands  we  cannot  abandon  the  Moros,  and  this 
adds  a  grave  complication  to  our  Philippine  problem. 

At  Jolo  we  received  the  news  of  the  capture  of  Aguinaldo 
and  his  reception  by  General  MacArthur  at  Malacanan 
Palace.  General  Funston,  then  a  Colonel  of  Volunteers, 
was  a  conspicuous  member  of  a  small  company  of  Army 
officers  known  locally  as  "the  suicide  squad,"  who  risked 
their  lives  in  one  exploit  after  another  with  the  utmost  un- 
concern, not  to  say  glee,  so  we  were  not  surprised  at  any- 
thing he  might  do.  But  there  was  a  real  thrill  in  the  story 
of  his  daring  venture  into  the  remote  and  isolated  camp  of 
the  insurrecto  general  and  Dictator,  and  we  cheered  his  per- 
formance with  heartfelt  enthusiasm,  though  our  ardour  was 
somewhat  dampened  by  doubts  as  to  what  the  arch-con- 

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spirator  would  do  in  Manila.  General  MacArthur  was  not 
a  politician;  he  was  a  soldier, — an  officer  and  a  gentleman, 
— and  in  his  treatment  of  his  captured  enemy  he  was  not 
likely  to  take  into  consideration  the  nature  of  the  people 
with  whom  he  was  dealing. 

However,  that  story  has  been  told,  well  and  often.  We 
know  that  General  Aguinaldo  also  was  "an  officer  and  a 
gentleman,"  proving  himself  worthy  of  all  the  courtesy 
extended  to  him  and  accepting  defeat  with  great  dignity. 
He  is  the  most  striking  figure  in  the  Philippines  even  to- 
day, though  one  only  hears  of  him  as  a  peaceful  and  unam- 
bitious farmer  in  his  native  province  of  Cavite  whence  he 
emerges  only  on  rare  occasions  to  be  present  at  some  impor- 
tant social  event  in  Manila  where,  among  Americans  in 
particular,  he  is  most  highly  regarded.  But,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  at  the  time  of  his  capture  the  Islands  were 
still  in  a  state  far  from  satisfactory ;  that  he  had  lieutenants 
in  all  parts  of  the  archipelago  endeavouring,  under  his 
orders,  and  by  methods  not  counted  as  "civilised,"  to  keep 
alive  the  spirit  of  rebellion,  and  that  he  had  an  extraordi- 
nary genius  for  conspiracy  and  organisation.  So  it  cannot 
be  wondered  at  that  my  husband  was  deeply  concerned  and 
that  he  wished  he  were  back  in  Manila  where  he  could  keep 
his  large  but  gentle  hand  upon  the  delicate  situation. 

From  Jolo  we  sailed  to  Zamboanga,  capital  of  the  Moro 
province,  and  thence  to  Cottabato.  At  Zamboanga  we  met 
an  entirely  different  class  of  Moros,  more  refined,  better 
educated  and  less  spectacular  than  those  in  the  Sulu 
Islands,  and  were  entertained  by  the  American  Army 
officers  in  the  ancient  Fortress  del  Filar,  which  still 
bears  the  marks  of  many  a  conflict  between  the  Moros 
and  the  Spaniards.  We  met  here  two  very  interest- 
ing men,  Datto  Mandi,  a  Moro,  and  Midel,  a  leading  Fili- 
pino. Mandi  was  said  to  be,  and  looked,  part  Spaniard, 
though  he  denied  the  Spanish  blood.  He  was  the  chief  of  a 

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tribe  of  many  thousands  of  people  and  wielded  a  wide  influ- 
ence which  the  American  Government  never  sought  to  cur- 
tail. He  was  a  good  business  man  and  intensely  loyal  to  the 
Americans,  giving  substantial  demonstrations  of  his  loyalty 
whenever  opportunity  offered.  He  told  the  Commission 
what  has  since  proved  to  be  the  truth  about  Moro  customs 
relative  to  slavery,  the  administration  of  justice  and  other 
matters,  and  displayed,  altogether,  a  genuinely  friendly  and 
helpful  attitude.  Midel,  the  Filipino,  was  himself  made 
a  datto  by  Mandi  and  seemed  inordinately  proud  of  his 
rank.  He  was  an  odd  individual  with  a  doubtful  record 
behind  him.  Sometime  before  we  met  him  he  had  sent  his 
son  to  be  educated  at  the  University  of  California,  and  it 
was  he  who  delivered  the  province  over  to  the  American 
troops  as  soon  as  they  arrived,  having  previously  disposed 
of  a  couple  of  insurgent  rivals  of  his  own  race  who  at- 
tempted to  keep  it  out  of  American  hands. 

At  Cottabato,  a  long  day's  sailing  from  Zamboanga 
across  Illana  Bay,  we  met  the  Moros  who  inhabit  the 
valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  del  Mindanao,  a  large  and  sin- 
ister looking  river.  We  communicated  with  these  people 
through  their  dattos,  Piang  and  Ali.  Piang  is  the  most 
powerful  datto  in  the  province.  He  is  the  son  of  a  Chinese 
carpenter  and  a  common  Moro  woman,  and  he  won  his 
position  through  shrewdness,  generosity  to  his  people  and 
native  ability.  Ordinarily  a  peaceful  conservative  he  was 
not  always  at  peace  with  Ali,  who  is  inherently  warlike  and 
a  datto  of  royal  descent,  but  a  couple  of  American  Army 
officers,  Colonel  Brett  and  Major  MacMahon,  in  charge 
of  the  post  at  Cottabato,  not  only  adjusted  their  differences 
but  induced  the  royal  Ali  to  marry  the  commoner  Piang's 
daughter.  Colonel  Brett  was  Ali's  "best  man,"  while 
Major  MacMahon  stood  sponsor  for  the  bride.  There  are 
American  Army  officers  who  have  seen  strange  service  in 
our  Far  Eastern  possessions. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

A  few  years  after  the  time  of  which  I  write  a  daughter  of 
Datto  Mandi  was  married  at  Iligan  in  northern  Mindanao 
and,  to  quote  from  Foreman's  "History  of  the  Philippines" : 
"Several  American  officers  were  present  on  the  occasion, 
accompanied  by  a  Spanish  half  caste  who  acted  as  their 
interpreter.  The  assembled  guests  were  having  a  merry 
time  when  suddenly  the  festivities  were  interrupted  by  the 
intrusion  of  a  juramentado  Moro  fanatic,  who  sprang  for- 
ward with  his  campildn  and  at  one  blow  almost  severed  the 
interpreter's  head  from  his  body.  Then  he  turned  his  at- 
tention to  the  other  natives,  mortally  wounded  two,  and 
cut  gashes  in  several  others  before  he  fell  dead  before  the 
revolver  shots  fired  by  the  American  officers.  After  the 
dead  and  wounded  were  carried  away  and  the  pools  of  blood 
were  mopped  up,  the  wedding  ceremony  was  proceeded  with 
and  the  hymeneal  festival  was  resumed  without  further 
untoward  incident." 

We  were  very  fortunate  that,  disturbed  as  conditions 
were,  no  "untoward  incident"  of  this  nature  occurred  to 
mar  the  serenity  of  our  first  great  trip  through  the  Islands. 

To  illustrate  Datto  Piang's  intense  desire  to  establish  his 
status  as  a  loyal  friend  of  the  United  States  Government  I 
think  I  must  relate,  in  part,  the  conversation  my  husband 
had  with  him  in  regard  to  the  gutta  percha  industry.  The 
forests  in  the  Rio  Grande  Valley  and  around  Lake  Lanao, 
in  the  northern  part  of  the  island  were  thought  to  be  almost 
inexhaustible  in  their  supply  of  gutta  percha  trees,  and 
Piang  was  found  to  be  a  large  dealer  in  the  product.  But 
inquiry  elicited  the  information  that  the  most  primitive 
methods  were  employed  in  gathering  the  gum  and  that  every 
year  thousands  of  trees  were  destroyed,  no  idea  of  scientific 
conservation  ever  having  entered  the  heads  of  the  Moros. 
Mr.  Taft  asked  Piang  whether  if  we  sent  him  an  expert  who 
knew  how  to  have  the  trees  treated  he  would  undertake  to 
enforce  regulations  which  such  an  expert  would  frame.  He 

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said  he  acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  the  United  States 
Government  and  held  himself  subject  to  its  orders,  every 
one  of  which  he  would  obey.  Moreover,  he  would  make  all 
the  other  dattos  obey  the  same  orders  whether  they  were 
willing  to  do  so  or  not.  Then  Mr.  Taf  t  explained  that  the 
United  States  Government  might  desire  to  lay  a  cable  from 
San  Francisco  to  the  Philippines  and  that  one  of  the  great 
items  of  expense  in  such  an  enterprise  was  the  gutta  percha. 
He  was  merely  trying  to  impress  upon  Piang's  mind  the 
immense  value  of  his  product  and  the  necessity  for  its 
proper  handling,  but  Piang  immediately  offered  to  make  the 
United  States  a  present  of  all  the  gutta  percha  it  needed  for 
a  Pacific  cable,  declaring  that  all  he  wanted  was  a  note  from 
the  authorities  indicating  the  amount  required.  He  would 
see  that  it  was  promptly  gathered  and  delivered.  Mr.  Taft 
then  told  him  that  the  United  States  always  paid  for  what- 
ever it  received  from  any  person,  whether  subject  to  its 
sovereignty  or  not,  whereupon  Piang  declared  that,  anyway, 
he  preferred  to  sell  his  gutta  percha  to  the  United  States, 
and  at  a  much  lower  price,  too,  than  he  was  receiving  from 
the  Chinese  dealers.  He  is  just  a  clever,  crafty  Chinaman 
himself,  is  Datto  Piang,  but  an  interesting  figure.  After 
a  thorough  investigation  of  Cottabato  and  a  right  royal 
entertainment  provided  by  a  number  of  gorgeously  attired 
dattos  and  sultans,  of  greater  or  less  degree,  who  had 
gathered  in  the  town  to  greet  us,  and  gaze  in  wide-eyed  curi- 
osity upon  us,  we  went  on  our  way  around  the  great  island 
of  Mindanao. 

At  Davao  we  saw  thousands  of  acres  of  the  highest  hemp 
in  the  world,  and  a  number  of  beautiful  bead-bedecked  hill 
tribes  who  had  come  down  into  coast  civilisation  for  the 
purpose,  no  doubt,  of  seeing  what  we  looked  like. 

These  hill  tribes  are  very  interesting  people.  They  are, 
perhaps,  more  picturesque  than  any  of  the  other  non- 
Christians,  and  they  have  developed  to  a  fine  point  the  art 

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of  making  bead  embroidered  clothing.  So  beautiful  and  so 
unusual  are  these  garments  that  the  ladies  in  the  party,  for- 
getting everything  else,  made  a  grand  rush  to  purchase  some 
of  them  from  the  various  tribesmen.  Our  eagerness,  in- 
deed, had  finally  to  be  restrained  in  order  that  attention 
might  be  given  to  the  efforts  of  the  Commission  to  enlighten 
the  people  as  to  our  mission,  but  having  patiently  awaited 
the  termination  of  business  we  returned  to  our  search  for 
the  bead-work,  only  to  find  that  the  finer  specimens  could 
not  by  any  process  of  cajolery  be  secured.  Money  meant 
nothing  to  the  hillmen  and  we  had  no  substitutes  in  the  way 
of  gewgaws  to  offer  them.  The  only  one  of  us  who  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  a  really  good  suit  was  Miss  Anne  Ide,  and 
her  success  was  the  result  of  a  curious  incident.  She  met  a 
chieftain  gorgeously  arrayed,  and  at  a  venture  tried  upon 
him  the  Samoan  greeting  and  a  Samoan  song  which  she  had 
learned  in  her  childhood  when  her  father  was  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Samoan  Islands.  To  her  great  surprise  the  Bogobo 
answered  and  seemed  greatly  pleased.  He  had  already  had 
conveyed  to  him  the  fact  that  the  only  thing  the  ladies 
wanted  was  bead  clothing,  so  he  indicated  to  Miss  Ide  that 
he  would  present  to  her  his  coat  and  pants,  and  without 
further  ado,  and  much  to  her  astonishment,  he  began  to 
divest  himself  of  these  garments  which  she  accepted  with 
delight.  The  incident  awakened  natural  curiosity  on  our 
part  as  to  the  relation  between  the  Polynesian  language  of 
Samoa  and  the  vernacular  of  the  hill  tribes  around  the 
Davao  gulf. 

From  Davao  we  proceeded  on  our  journey  around 
Mindanao,  sailing  out  into  the  open  Pacific  and  up  to  the 
province  of  Surigao  in  the  northeast  corner  of  the  island. 

The  town  of  Surigao  lies  six  miles  up  a  swamp-bound, 
sluggish  river  and  we  experienced,  as  we  so  often  did  in  the 
whole  course  of  the  trip,  a  sense  of  being  in  uncharted 
and  therefore  dangerous  waters.  We  embarked  in  a  launch 

176 


i  H|i ji  j  i   jk, 


nr'ti 


PICTURESQUE    BEAD-BEDECKED    BOGOBOS    OF   THE   DAVAO    COUNTRY 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

when  the  tide  was  high  and  had  no  trouble  in  getting  up  to 
the  village,  but  we  were  earnestly  entreated  by  the  officer  in 
charge  of  the  launch  to  hurry  with  our  business  in  order  that 
we  might  start  back  before  the  tide  went  out.  He  assured 
us  that  it  would  be  very  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  cross 
the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  at  low  tide.  His  entreaties 
were  in  vain.  The  Commissioners  were  engaged  in  inter- 
views with  Surigao  citizens  which  they  could  not  or  would 
not  cut  short,  so  the  ladies  and  children,  having  seen  every- 
thing and  met  everybody,  went  back  to  the  landing  and  sat 
in  the  launch  patiently  waiting  while  the  daylight  slowly 
disappeared.  The  launch  captain  was  visibly  agitated,  and 
told  us  time  and  again  about  what  a  hard  time  we  were  sure 
to  have  getting  back  to  the  Sumner.  And  he  was  quite 
right. 

The  launch  was  not  large  enough  to  accommodate  the 
entire  party  so  it  towed  a  cutter  which  also  was  fairly  well 
loaded.  When  the  men  finally  arrived,  full  of  explanations 
and  good-natured  apologies,  it  was  pitch  dark,  but,  being 
optimists,  we  shoved  off  into  the  river,  feeling  sure  that  the 
fears  of  our  commanding  officer  were  groundless. 

After  steaming  merrily  along  for  a  few  miles,  becoming 
more  and  more  confident  all  the  time,  we  suddenly  got  a 
shaking  bump  and  found  ourselves  fast  in  the  mud.  It 
didn't  take  so  long,  however,  to  get  afloat  again,  and  we 
were  just  congratulating  ourselves  that  the  captain's  bug- 
bear of  a  sandbar  was  behind  us  when  we  felt  a  violent 
impact  followed  by  a  terrifying  sensation  as  if  the  keel  were 
grinding  over  rocks. 

The  captain  swore  softly  and  said  something  about 
striking  "the  ruins  of  that  old  Spanish  bridge,"  then  hurried 
forward  to  see  what  damage  had  been  done.  The  people 
in  the  cutter,  riding  the  short  waves  in  our  wake,  were  thor- 
oughly alarmed  and  were  clamouring  to  know  what  had  hap- 
pened to  us.  We  couldn't  tell  them,  but  it  sounded  very 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

much  as  if  we  had  torn  the  whole  bottom  out  of  the  launch. 
The  engine  had  stopped;  it  was  inky  dark;  the  children  all 
began  to  cry;  and,  to  add  further  discomfort  to  the  situation, 
it  began  to  rain  in  torrents.  The  launch  swayed  sickeningly 
this  way  and  that,  then  the  engine  started  again,  whereupon 
came  a  most  furious  clatter  aft.  There  is  no  denying  that 
it  made  us  blanch  with  fear,  but  it  proved  to  be  only  a 
blade  of  the  propeller  which  had  been  bent  and  was  striking 
the  boat  with  each  revolution. 

Three  times  more  we  slid  into  the  mud;  the  last  time  we 
stuck  and  no  effort  that  could  be  made  would  get  us  out,  so 
we  were  forced  to  abandon  the  launch  and  wedge  ourselves 
altogether  into  the  little  cutter.  You  may  picture  for  your- 
self the  scene  of  men,  women  and  children,  in  the  rain  and 
with  no  light  save  the  faint  flicker  of  lanterns,  dropping  off 
a  big  launch  into  a  small  rowboat  over  an  inky  stream  sup- 
posed to  be  filled  with  crocodiles. 

When  we  reached  the  mouth  of  the  river  the  captain 
began  to  show  signs  of  nervousness,  though  he  had  been 
entirely  self -control  led  throughout  the  worst  of  our  troubles. 
We  couldn't  see  where  we  were  going,  but  we  could  dis- 
tinctly feel  that  the  open  bay  lay  not  far  ahead  of  us. 
What  we  wanted  was  to  have  the  Sumner's  searchlight 
turned  on  our  path,  but  the  only  thing  we  had  with  us  with 
which  to  convey  this  desire  to  the  ship's  officers  were  red 
rockets, — the  last  resort  of  the  sailor  in  distress.  There  was 
nothing  else  to  do;  the  launch  captain  began  firing  them  off, 
and  a  weirder  scene  than  was  revealed  by  their  momentary 
glare  can  hardly  be  imagined.  They  produced  the  desired 
effect,  however,  and  in  less  than  ten  minutes  a  great  shaft 
of  light,  straight  from  the  bridge  of  the  Sumner,  was  sweep- 
ing the  banks  of  the  river  and  bay  shore  and  affording  us 
just  the  kind  of  assistance  we  required. 

But  that  was  not  the  end.  Less  than  half-way  to  the 
Sumner  we  met  a  lifeboat,  equipped  with  all  the  parapher- 

178 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

nalia  for  rescuing  us  from  a  watery  grave,  and  manned  by 
an  excited  crew  in  oilskins,  who,  under  the  sharp  commands 
of  an  almost  frantic  officer,  were  pulling  in  mad  haste  for 
the  river's  mouth.  When  they  saw  us  they  lapsed  into  a 
state  of  utter  disgust.  They  turned  and  rowed  sadly  back 
to  the  ship,  and  afterward  I  overheard  them  exchanging  very 
definite  opinions  as  to  the  possible  future  of  a  sailor  who 
would  burn  red  rockets  when  all  he  wanted  was  a  search- 
light. 

After  calling  at  Cagayan  Misamis,  Dapitan,  Iloilo,  San 
Jose  Antique  and  Capiz,  we  made  straight  for  Cebu.  Cebu 
is,  in  rivalry  with  Iloilo  and  next  to  Manila,  the  most  im- 
portant town  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  It  is  a  receiving 
station  for  exports  from  all  parts  of  the  southern  islands  and 
is  altogether  what  is  known  as  a  "live"  town.  It  is  the 
capital  of  the  province  of  the  same  name  which  consists  of 
a  single  long  island  some  two  thousand  square  miles  in  area 
and  with  a  population  (at  that  time)  of  nearly  seven  hun- 
dred thousand. 

At  Cebu  we  were  rejoined  by  Chief  Justice  Arellano,  who 
had  left  us  sometime  before  to  go  back  to  Manila.  We 
were  greatly  interested  in  his  account  of  the  effect  of  Agui- 
naldo's  capture  and  subsequent  treatment.  The  erstwhile 
insurgent  leader  was  still  in  prison,  but  his  prison  was  made 
an  honourable  abode  where  he  was  permitted  to  be  with  his 
family  and  to  receive  his  friends.  The  mass  of  the  people 
would  not,  for  a  long  time,  believe  he  really  had  been  cap- 
tured. They  thought  the  report  was  an  American  fabrica- 
tion to  delude  them  and  to  destroy  their  faith  in  Aguinaldo's 
anting-anting, — or  magic  charm  against  defeat.  The  shat- 
tering of  that  faith  gave  vast  impetus  to  the  general  peace 
movement  and,  though  a  few  hundred  rifles  and  several 
insurrecto  officers  were  still  unaccounted  for,  and  though 
occasional  outbreaks  and  the  activities  of  marauding  bands 
of  outlaws  continued  for  a  considerable  length  of  time,  the 

179 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

actual  organised  insurrection  had  suffered  a  complete  col- 
lapse. 

The  Commission  kept  Cebu  on  tenterhooks  for  a  time 
as  to  whether  the  condition  of  order  in  the  province  was  such 
that  they  could  go  on  with  the  establishment  of  government 
there,  and  it  was  interesting  to  watch  the  effect  of  this  un- 
certainty. To  be  included  in  the  general  organisation 
became  at  once  the  warmly  expressed  wish  of  a  majority  of 
the  people,  and  there  was  great  excitement  throughout  the 
town.  Eventually  Justice  Llorente,  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  Manila,  a  member  of  our  party,  and  himself  a  Cebuano, 
was  appointed  Governor  of  the  province  under  the  simple 
American  form,  and  because  of  his  integrity  and  real  patriot- 
ism, because  of  the  high  regard  in  which  he  was  held  by  the 
people,  and  because  of  the  enthusiasm  and  complete  faith 
with  which  he  entered  upon  his  duties,  it  was  hoped  that  he 
would  be  able  soon  to  lead  his  province  into  the  sensible 
paths  marked  out  for  it. 

With  Cebu  and  the  problems  of  Cebu  behind  us,  we  felt 
that  our  long  trip  was  nearly  finished.  Bohol,  Leyte, 
Samar,  Albay,  the  Camarines  and  Sorsogon,  each  in  its  turn 
brought  us  nearer  to  our  comfortable  homes  in  Manila  and 
to  relaxation,  for  which  we  were  beginning  to  long. 

Each  district  expected  us  to  give  them  at  least  a  day  for 
business  and  an  evening  for  festivity,  but  this  was  not 
always  possible.  At  Sorsogon  we  found  a  veritable  riot  of 
decoration,  with  fine  arches  and  many  flags  and  every  indi- 
cation that  the  town  had  spared  no  effort  to  make  our  visit 
there  a  memorable  event.  In  the  evening,  beside  the 
banquete  and  baile,  there  was  to  have  been  a  torchlight  pro- 
cession, with  a  triumphal  car  and  a  Filipino  maiden  as  the 
Goddess  of  Liberty.  It  was  a  great  pity  that  we  couldn't 
stay,  but  we  had  to  sail  that  afternoon  for  Boak,  so  the 
programme  had  to  be  advanced  several  hours. 

The  extraordinary  car,  or  float,  which  had  undoubtedly 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

cost  weeks  of  skilled  workmanship,  came  forth  into  the 
blistering  sunlight  bearing  the  pretty  brown  girl  in  tinsel 
and  white  muslin,  her  long,  black  hair  almost  wholly  envel- 
oping her  as  she  held  aloft  the  flickering  symbol  of  Enlight- 
enment. It  was  a  Filipino  adaptation  of  the"sacred  torch" 
which  we  had  ourselves  been  carrying  throughout  the 
islands,  and  I  felt  that  its  production  was  a  fitting  climax  to 
our  laborious  progress. 

Two  days  later  when  we  landed  in  Manila,  after  organ- 
ising Marinduque  and  Batangas,  we  were  able  to  look  back 
upon  a  singular  experience,  an  expedition  perhaps  unique 
in  history,  with  which  was  ushered  in  a  new  era,  not  to  say  a 
new  national  existence,  for  the  people  of  the  Philippine 
Islands. 


181 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    WILD    MEN'S    COUNTRY 

I  SHOULD  like  to  say  here,  by  way  of  explanation,  which 
may  or  may  not  be  necessary,  that  I  am  not  trying  in  this 
narrative  to  pose  as  a  woman  endowed  with  an  especial  com- 
prehension of  such  problems  of  state  as  men  alone  have 
been  trained  to  deal  with.  I  confess  only  to  a  lively  interest 
in  my  husband's  work  which  I  experienced  from  the  begin- 
ning of  our  association  and  which  nothing  in  our  long  life 
together,  neither  monotony,  nor  illness,  nor  misfortune,  has 
served  to  lessen;  and  it  would  be  practically  impossible  for 
me  to  write  a  record  of  memories  in  which  he  did  not  figure 
very  largely. 

In  the  settlement  of  American  control  in  the  Philippine 
Islands  Mr.  Taft,  first  as  President  of  the  first  legislative 
Commission  and,  later,  as  Civil  Governor,  had  to  contend 
with  a  varied  and  complex  resistance  which  it  would  be 
difficult  for  one  not  experienced  in  politics  to  comprehend. 
If  it  had  been  Filipino  resistance  only  it  would  have  been 
fairly  easy  to  overcome,  but  Filipino  resistance  was  indi- 
rectly sanctioned  and  directly  assisted  by  a  strong  oppo- 
sition in  the  United  States  to  what  seemed  to  us  who  were 
on  the  ground  to  be  the  only  sensible  and  really  patriotic 
measures  possible  under  the  circumstances. 

For  reasons  which  I  have  tried  to  convey,  as  clearly  as  I 
am  able,  my  husband  was  not  in  favour  of  a  continuation  of 
military  rule  in  the  Islands  beyond  the  time  when  military 
activity  was  imperative,  nor  was  he  in  favour  of  abandoning 
a  problem  which  grew  daily  more  difficult  and  more  compli- 
cated. So  he  and  his  colleagues  persisted  in  the  tremendous 
task  of  settling  a  whole  people  under  a  sane  and  sensible 
form  of  government. 

The  trip  through  the  southern  islands  was  particularly 

182 


PHILIPPINE   NON-CHRISTIANS.      A   BONTOC  IGORROTE     (TOP,    LEFT,) 
A  MORO  AND  TWO  KALINGA  CHIEFS    (WITH  SHIELDS) 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

valuable  to  them  in  that  it  gave  them  first-hand,  working 
knowledge  of  existing  conditions  in  every  province.  They 
immediately  set  about  revising  their  original  Provincial 
code  in  accordance  with  requirements  which  they  were  able 
to  discover  only  through  personal  investigation,  and  at  the 
same  time  they  took  up  the  grave  business  of  establishing  a 
sound  judiciary. 

There  was  always  something  new  to  be  talked  over  at  our 
family  table,  or  during  the  long  evening  hours  on  the 
verandah  overlooking  the  Bay  and,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
much  of  our  "news"  presented  itself  in  the  form  of  fresh 
delays  and  exasperating  difficulties,  life  was  very  entertain- 
ing. 

Not  long  after  we  returned  from  our  trip  through  the 
South  Mrs.  J.  Franklin  Bell  invited  my  sister  Maria  and  me 
to  go  with  her  on  an  expedition,  on  which  she  expected  to 
accompany  her  husband,  through  the  mountains  of  northern 
Luzon  which  are  inhabited  by  non-Christian  tribes  only. 
General  Bell  was  commander  of  troops  in  the  North  and 
this  was  to  be  an  inspection  trip.  It  meant  several 
weeks  on  horseback,  over  dangerous  trails  where,  in  parts  at 
least,  no  white  woman  had  ever  been,  but  we  were  most 
anxious  to  go.  The  trouble  was  that  I  had  never  ridden  in 
my  life,  so  I  looked  with  considerable  trepidation  to  the 
prospect  of  a  long  and  necessarily  intimate  association  with 
a  horse.  I  brought  the  proposition  up  in  family  council  and 
my  husband  advised  me,  by  all  means,  to  go.  I  should 
probably  have  gone  without  this  advice,  but  it  was  comfort- 
ing to  have  it  because  if  anything  happened  I  could  "blame 
it  all  on  him."  In  fact,  I  began  to  do  this  even  before  I  left. 
When  my  courage  dwindled  a  little  I  promptly  told  him 
that  it  was  all  his  fault;  that  if  he  hadn't  urged  me  to  go  I 
never  should  have  thought  of  such  a  thing;  but  that  as  long 
as  I  had  promised  I  should  have  to  see  the  adventure  through, 
though  I  knew  I  should  never  survive  it.  He  only  laughed 

183 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  assured  me  that  we  would  have  a  glorious  time  and  that 
the  trip  would  do  us  "all  the  good  in  the  world." 

Major  Stevens,  who  expected  to  accompany  us,  brought 
me  an  American  horse,  of  formidable  dimensions,  and  volun- 
teered to  superintend  my  first  encounter  with  him.  He  was 
as  gentle  as  a  lamb.  I  wouldn't  let  him  go  faster  than  a 
walk  the  first  evening  and  the  fact  that  I  was  pretty  stiff  at 
the  end  of  my  ride  made  me  almost  hopeless.  The  second 
evening  I  let  him  out  a  little,  and  began,  much  to  my  sur- 
prise to  enjoy  the  exhilaration  of  the  exercise.  By  the  third 
evening  I  had  progressed  so  far  that  I  decided  for  myself 
that  the  poor  old  beast  had  no  speed  in  him  at  all. 

We  took  a  Spanish  steamer,  the  Salvador  a,  from  Manila 
up  to  Vigan,  where  General  Bell  was  stationed,  and,  though 
I  am  glad  to  have  had  the  experience,  I  shouldn't  care  to 
repeat  it.  When  we  got  on  board  we  were  shown  at  once 
to  a  most  promising-looking  stateroom,  quite  spacious,  and 
with  four  berths  in  it.  The  trip  to  Vigan  was  to  take  from 
Thursday  to  Saturday  and  we  were  glad  to  note  that  we 
were  going  to  be  quite  comfortable.  But  our  self -congratu- 
lations came  to  a  sudden  end.  Upon  inspection  we  found 
the  room  was  indescribably  dirty,  the  beds  were  without 
sheets,  the  pillows  were  like  rocks,  there  were  insects  galore, 
and  the  thermometer  stood  at  1 10  degrees.  Ventilation  was 
out  of  the  question  because  the  room  opened  into  a  sort  of 
public  saloon  where  innumerable  Filipinos,  in  various  states 
of  undress,  slept,  stretched  out  on  the  floor,  on  the  tables, 
on  chairs,  on  anything  that  could  serve  as  a  resting  place. 
The  second  night  I  got  the  Captain's  permission  to  sleep  on 
the  bridge,  since  the  decks,  too,  were  covered  with  a  miscel- 
laneous crowd  and  were  rendered  additionally  uncomfort- 
able by  odoriferous  strings  of  cabbages  and  other  vegetables 
which  hung  from  the  awnings. 

The  food  on  the  ship  was  all  Spanish ;  indeed,  I  might  say, 
terribly  Spanish;  still,  I  was  rather  used  to  it  and  didn't 

184 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

mind  much  as  long  as  I  could  get  into  a  wind-swept  corner 
of  the  deck  to  eat  it.  But  there  were  some  American 
women  on  board  who  had  just  come  out  from  the  United 
States  and  they  complained  violently. 

We  were  put  ashore  early  Saturday  morning;  much 
earlier,  in  fact  than  we  had  been  expected  to  arrive.  We 
had  to  drive  three  miles  before  we  reached  the  Bells'  house, 
and  when  we  did  get  there  we  were  delighted  to  find  that 
they  were  just  having  breakfast.  They  were  eating  real, 
human  food  and,  however  heroically  we  had  adapted  our- 
selves to  the  peculiarities  of  Spanish  cookery,  there  was 
nothing  we  stood  so  much  in  need  of.  They  were  a  most 
homelike  and  comfortable-looking  party.  Besides  the  Gen- 
eral and  Mrs.  Bell  there  were  two  young  officers,  Mr.  Wil- 
cox  and  Mr.  Nolan,  and  a  young  lady  whose  name  was  Miss 
Bubb,  a  daughter  of  General  Bubb,  and  whose  general 
characteristics  had  won  for  her  the  nickname  of  "Bubbles." 

The  first  thing  we  learned  was  that  Mrs.  Bell  would, 
after  all,  be  unable  to  go  with  us  on  the  trip  through  the 
mountains.  She  was  not  at  all  well  and  the  doctor  had  for- 
bidden it.  We  were  greatly  disappointed.  Mrs.  Bell  is  so 
jolly  and  full  of  fun  that  she  is  an  addition  to  any  party, 
and  on  such  an  expedition  as  we  were  contemplating  we  were 
sure  to  miss  her  tremendously.  But,  the  party  was  all 
made  up.  General  Bell  was  to  take  command;  "Bubbles" 
was  going;  then,  in  addition  to  my  sister  and  me,  there  were 
Major  Rice,  Major  Stevens,  Captain  Shearer  and  Captain 
Haight — eight  in  all. 

First  let  me  say  that  the  northern  part  of  the  island  of 
Luzon  bears  just  about  as  much  resemblance  to  the  rest  of 
the  archipelago  as  the  Alps  bear  to  the  plains  of  Nebraska. 
We  began  to  notice  the  difference  even  at  Vigan,  though 
Vigan  is  at  sea-level  and  is  as  hot  as  a  sea-level  town  is 
supposed  to  be  in  that  latitude.  But  it  feels  and  looks  like 
a  little  foreign  city;  foreign,  that  is,  to  the  Philippines.  Its 

185 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

houses  are  well  built  of  ancient-looking  stone,  with  heavy 
red- tiled  roofs ;  its  streets  are  narrow  and  crooked  and  it  has 
a  fine  plaza  filled  with  fire-trees  which,  when  I  saw  them 
first,  were  in  full  bloom.  There  is  no  way  to  describe  the 
magnificence  of  a  grove  or  avenue  of  fire-trees.  They  make 
a  veritable  cloud  of  flame  which,  seen  against  a  background 
of  blue  hills,  or  overhanging  the  mouldy,  old-world  grace 
of  a  Spanish  church  and  convent,  fairly  "takes  one's  breath." 
The  world-famed  cherry  trees  of  Japan,  wonderful  as  they 
are,  seem  pale  and  soulless  in  comparison.  I  wonder  the 
Spaniards  didn't  line  the  streets  of  Manila  with  fire-trees 
and  make  for  themselves  the  reputation  of  having  created 
the  most  amazing  city  in  the  world. 

While  we  were  at  Vigan,  and  before  starting  on  the  long 
trip,  we  made  an  excursion  to  Bangued,  in  the  province  of 
Abra.  Mrs.  Bell  went  with  us.  This  town,  a  short  time 
before,  could  be  reached  only  by  raft  up  the  Abra  River,  no 
launch  ever  having  been  built  that  could  go  through  the 
rapids,  but  the  establishment  of  an  Army  post  made  neces- 
sary the  building  of  a  piece  of  road  which  shortened  the 
journey  at  the  Bangued  end.  The  first  part  of  the  trip, 
however,  had  still  to  be  made  by  water  and  all  the  supplies 
for  the  soldiers  were  sent  up  on  a  fleet  of  twenty  or  more 
rafts  which  started  out  together  every  morning.  When 
there  was  a  breeze  each  of  them  would  run  up  a  sail  of 
bright,  striped  Igorote  cloth. 

We  had  a  grand  raft  with  a  bamboo  awning.  And  there 
were  comfortable  rattan  chairs,  to  say  nothing  of  a  picnic 
luncheon  and  a  carefully  wrapped  and  jealously  guarded 
box  of  ice.  Ice  was  the  rarest  of  all  luxuries  in  the  pro- 
vincial towns  of  the  Philippines  in  those  days. 

We  moved  very  slowly  against  the  current  of  the  swift- 
flowing  river,  but  we  had  no  desire  to  hurry.  It  was  really 
enchanting.  From  narrow,  pebbly  beaches  on  either  bank 
rose  rugged  cliffs  which  seemed  to  tower  mountain  high, 

186 


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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

throwing  deep  shadows  into  the  canyon  and  leaving  only  a 
narrow  ribbon  of  sky  above  us.  And  these  cliffs  were  hung 
with  a  tangled  undergrowth  through  which  small,  white 
waterfalls  rushed  and  rustled.  Where  the  river  broadened, 
here  and  there,  we  came  upon  groups  of  bright-clad  natives 
who  regarded  us  with  great  curiosity,  and  at  one  place  we 
saw  half  a  dozen  women  starting  up  the  steep  bank  with 
graceful  brown  water-jars  balanced  on  their  heads.  Each 
one  was  carrying  at  least  six,  one  on  top  of  another,  and  all 
of  them  full.  How  they  managed  it  was  beyond  compre- 
hension. We  watched  them  until  they  were  out  of  sight 
and  not  one  of  them  ever  raised  a  hand  to  her  head.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  they  were  nonchalantly  smoking  and  chat- 
tering away  as  if  they  were  quite  unconscious  of  their  bur- 
dens, though  the  slightest  unrhythmical  motion  would  have 
spelt  disaster  for  them  all. 

At  eleven  o'clock  we  reached  the  village  where  the  road 
begins  and  the  whole  population  gathered  around  in  curious 
groups  and  gazed  at  us.  White  women  were  still  a  novelty 
in  that  region  and  I'm  sure  we  looked  much  more  peculiar  to 
them  than  they  looked  to  us.  There  were  crowds  of  school 
children  from  the  new  American  school,  and  one  very  much 
embarrassed  little  girl,  who  had  had  her  English  book  only 
about  four  months,  read  some  English  for  me  very  nicely. 
Likely  as  not  that  same  little  girl  has  by  this  time  won  a 
normal  school  certificate  and  is  herself  teaching  English  in 
an  "American"  school.  Such  is  the  history  of  many  of  her 
generation. 

When  we  reached  Bangued  the  young  men  in  the  com- 
mand of  Major  Bowen,  who  was  our  host,  gave  up  their 
house  to  the  ladies,  and  we  had  three  comfortable  beds,  with 
mosquito  nets,  in  a  large,  airy  room.  It  was  a  fine  after- 
noon for  a  siesta  because  it  rained  in  torrents  for  the  rest  of 
the  day  and  the  patter  of  rain  on  nipa  thatch  is  a  soothing 
sound.  The  young  men's  house  was  just  across  from  the 

187 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Major's  and  by  evening  the  street  was  such  a  river  that  we 
had  to  be  carried  over  for  dinner.  But  nobody  minded; 
and  we  enjoyed  even  the  music  of  the  native  band  which 
stationed  itself  down  under  our  windows  and  enlivened  the 
occasion  with  a  wonderful  medley  of  sound.  When  the 
bandmen  came  upstairs  for  refreshments  Mrs.  Bell  and  two 
of  the  young  officers  ran  down  and  tried  their  powers  on 
the  instruments,  and  I  can  only  say  that  the  result  was  joyful 
pandemonium. 

The  next  morning  we  left  our  hospitable  hosts  and, 
escorted  by  Lieutenant  Ingram,  made  the  return  trip  all  the 
way  down  the  river.  The  water  was  high  and,  though  it 
had  taken  us  an  interminable  time  to  go  up,  it  took  only 
three  hours  and  a  half  to  go  down;  and  some  of  the  rapids 
were  most  exciting.  We  took  our  lunch  basket  and  chairs 
ashore  on  a  lovely,  green,  shaded  knoll  and  dallied  there 
for  several  hours.  Only  a  month  before  nobody,  who  was 
not  compelled  to,  ever  went  over  this  route  on  account  of  the 
danger  of  being  shot,  but  the  last  of  the  Abra  insurgents 
had  surrendered,  and  so  safe  did  we  feel  that  we  were  ab- 
solutely unarmed. 

If  I  should  try  to  write  a  detailed  account  of  this  expedi- 
tion I  am  afraid  I  could  not  avoid  conveying  the  idea  that  we 
encountered  nothing  but  a  continuous  downpour.  It  was  the 
"rainy  season"  and  we  were  wet  most  of  the  time,  but  Mr. 
Taf  t  was  right  when  he  promised  that  we  would  have  a  glori- 
ous time  and  that  the  trip  would  do  us  a  "world  of  good." 
Down  in  the  heat  and  the  political  turmoil  of  Manila  I  was 
taking  things  much  too  seriously,  while  up  in  the  far-away 
north  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  dismiss  all  worry  and  ac- 
cept things  as  they  came  along.  After  we  left  Vigan  on  the 
long  trail  the  only  way  we  could  get  even  a  letter  through 
was  by  messenger  who  had  to  travel  hundreds  of  miles 
through  a  most  difficult  country.  So  I  enjoyed  myself 
thoroughly,  as  did  every  one  else  in  the  party,  hardships  and 

188 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

physical  discomforts  seeming  only  to  add  to  our  gaiety. 

At  first  I  thought  that  my  riding  lessons  in  Manila  were 
not  going  to  do  me  much  good.  We  had  had  a  most  luxu- 
riously easy  time  in  the  beginning.  We  left  General  Bell's 
house  in  an  Army  ambulance,  instead  of  on  horses,  for  our 
first  day's  journey  on  the  "long  trail."  General  Bell  was  in 
command  and  he  knew  what  he  was  doing.  All  he  had  to 
do  was  to  issue  orders;  we  obeyed.  That  is  what  it  is 
to  go  camping  with  a  soldier.  One  learns  what  discipline 
means. 

We  were  permitted  to  take  with  us  only  such  things  as 
were  absolutely  necessary.  Even  then,  the  "absolute  neces- 
sities" which  we  eventually  discarded  as  useless  impedimenta 
would  have  made  a  long  list.  Everything  was  done  up  in 
waterproof  bundles  and  when  we  started  out  these  were 
stuffed  so  full  that  they  would  hardly  fasten,  but  they  grew 
slimmer  as  time  went  on.  The  most  important  articles,  we 
found,  were  our  slickers  and  wraps.  It  was  wet  and  cold 
and  we  had  to  have  them,  but  all  our  toilet  appurtenances 
together  went  easily  into  Miss  Bubb's  saddle-bags. 

The  first  day  we  forded  a  river — the  same  river — several 
times,  and,  finally,  we  had  to  cross  it  on  a  raft  which  was  so 
small  that  it  could  carry  only  one  thing,  or  one  person  at  a 
time.  My  sister,  Miss  Bubb  and  I  sat  on  the  bank  above 
the  ford  for  more  than  two  hours  waiting  for  all  our  things 
to  get  across.  While  we  waited  many  natives  came  along 
driving  carabaos,  and  it  was  amusing  to  see  the  two-wheeled, 
awkward  carts  hustled  onto  the  swaying  raft — one  thing 
after  another  falling  into  the  river — while  each  poor  old 
carabao  was  forced  to  swim,  dragged  along  by  his  master 
who  held  fast  to  a  string  attached  to  a  ring  in  the  animal's 
nose.  If  I  had  been  able  to  speak  the  dialect  I  would  have 
said:  "Your  friend  the  Carabao,  being  a  water-buffalo, 
could  probably  swim  the  river  much  more  easily  without 
your  assistance."  I  have  had  to  look  on  and  suffer  at  many 

189 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

things  in  the  Philippine  Islands  merely  because  I  was  unable 
to  speak  a  dozen-odd  different  dialects.  In  the  provinces 
Spanish  was  seldom  of  any  use  because  the  common  tao 
knows  little  or  nothing  of  it,  and  it  is  with  the  common  tao 
that  one  wishes  there  to  communicate. 

On  our  first  day's  journey  we  did  thirty-seven  miles  in  a 
jolting  Army  wagon,  but  the  air  was  so  invigorating,  and 
we  were  having  such  a  good  time,  that  we  were  not  ex- 
hausted. We  didn't  even  murmur  when  we  were  told  to  be 
ready  to  start  at  four  the  next  morning. 

This  was  at  Candon  and  we  were  joined  there  by  Major 
Stevens,  which  made  our  party  complete.  The  next  even- 
ing, at  Concepcion,  we  camped  in  a  lovely,  new  nipa-thatched 
house  which  had  been  built  by  a  man  who  was  known  gener- 
ally as  "Windy"  Wilson,  an  Army  captain.  We  were  ex- 
tremely thankful  for  the  shelter,  because  it  was  raining  as 
it  can  rain  only  in  northern  Luzon  and  we  had  every  reason 
to  believe  that  this  would  be  the  last  house  we  would  be  per- 
mitted to  occupy  for  many  a  day.  We  were  striking  straight 
into  the  mountains  and  our  shelter-to-be  was  a  small  field 
tent  slung  on  the  cargo  saddle  of  a  commissary  mule. 

Captain  Wilson's  house  was  quite  spacious.  It  had  two 
rooms;  one  small  and  one  large  one.  The  ladies  slept  in 
the  smaller  room  on  Army  cots,  while  the  four  stalwart 
officers  of  our  military  escort  stretched  themselves  out  on 
blankets  and  slickers  on  the  split  bamboo  floor  of  the  larger 
room.  The  walls  and  partitions  were  of  woven  nipa  palm 
leaves,  known  locally  as  suali,  while  the  two  windows  were 
made  of  braided  bamboo  and  were  set  in  grooves  so,  when 
we  wanted  to  open  them,  all  we  had  to  do  was  to  give  them  a 
gentle  shove.  There  were  no  "trappings  of  civilisation," 
but  we  managed  to  be  perfectly  comfortable. 

The  next  day,  before  the  sun  was  very  high,  we  found  our- 
selves in  the  midst  of  mountain- tops,  on  a  trail  which  rose  in 
great  upward  sweeps  around  the  densely  wooded  slopes,  to 

190 


AN  IGORROTE  HEAD  DAXCE,  AND  A  COMPANY  OF   CARGODORES  WITH 
THEIR    DOGS,    WHICH    ARE    TO    BE    KILLED    FOR    FOOD 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

an  altitude  of  5600  feet.  By  this  time  we  were  all  on  horse- 
back with  eight  Igorrote  boys  behind  us  carrying  a  sedan 
chair  to  be  used  in  case  of  accident  or  a  dangerous  washout 
on  the  trail.  I  wish  I  could  describe  the  magnificence  of  the 
scene  which  lay  all  about  us  when  we  reached  that  amazing 
summit.  General  Bell,  who  had  been  all  through  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  the  Yellowstone,  and  the  Yosemite  Val- 
ley, said  there  was  nothing  that  he  had  ever  seen  which 
could  compare  with  it.  And  its  grandeur  is  accentuated  by 
vivid  colouring.  The  Igorrotes  have,  for  hundreds  of  years, 
been  building  extraordinary  rice-terraces  and  these  have 
gradually  climbed  the  mountains  until,  in  some  places,  only 
the  rugged  crests  are  left  uncultivated.  The  terraces  are  as 
symmetrical  as  honeycomb  and  are  built  in  solid  walls  of 
finely  laid  masonry  out  of  which  grow  ferns  and  tangled 
vines.  The  brilliant  colour  of  the  young  rice  fairly  glows 
against  the  dark  greens  of  pine  trees,  of  spreading  mangoes, 
and  of  tropic  forest  giants  whose  names  I  do  not  know. 
And  wherever  one  looks  there  are  peaks,  jagged  sunlit  peaks 
which  rise  from  sombre  valleys  upward  into  a  strange  light 
whose  every  ray  seems  to  shine  in  its  own  individual  hue. 
In  the  far  distance  we  could  see  the  ocean,  with  white 
breakers  dashing  against  the  cliffs ;  while  in  the  valley  below 
the  Santa  Cruz  River,  though  actually  foaming  and  dashing 
through  its  winding,  rocky  bed,  seemed  to  us  to  be  lying  still, 
without  motion  of  any  kind,  or  sound. 

In  my  diary,  which  I  kept  on  that  trip,  I  find  that  at  each 
stopping  place  I  have  solemnly  set  down  the  observation 
that:  "the  scenery  to-day  was  the  finest  we  have  yet  found"; 
and  when  we  reached  Sagada  I  took  the  trouble  to  record 
for  my  own  future  reference  that:  "I  shall  not  rest  until 
Will  has  seen  it."  He  never  has. 

At  Sagada  we  found  ourselves  quite  far  up  in  the  Igorrote 
country,  where  Filipinos  as  a  rule,  do  not  go.  We  had 
come  from  Cervantes  over  a  trail  where  the  horses  cautiously 

191 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

kept  to  the  inside,  and  where  we  were  told  to  let  go  of  our 
inner  stirrups  so,  in  case  a  horse  went  over  the  edge  of  the 
precipice  its  rider  would  have  a  chance  of  falling  clear  on 
the  terra-firma  side  instead  of  being  hurled  out  into  open 
space.  There  are  a  great  many  people  who  have  to  be  taken 
over  such  trails  blind- folded,  but  there  were  no  dizzy-heads 
among  us,  and  as  each  turn  of  the  way  revealed  to  us  dif- 
ferent and  more  wonderful  views,  we  filled  the  day  with  ex- 
clamation points. 

Here  and  there  we  met  bands  of  Igorrotes,  marching  "In- 
dian file,"  carrying  great  bundles  of  rice  up  short-cut  moun- 
tain trails,  which  wound  through  the  rice  terraces  and  were 
"as  steep  as  the  side  of  a  house."  All  the  men  had  long, 
murderous-looking  spears,  while  the  women  were  evidently 
the  burden-bearers.  Along  the  main  trail  we  came,  now  and 
then,  upon  a  company  of  men  leading  home  a  whimpering 
and  pitiful  little  pack  of  very  thin  dogs.  We  knew  these 
were  to  be  killed  and  eaten  and,  naturally,  the  thought  was 
sickening,  but  in  the  Igorrote  country  the  dog-loving  white 
man  has  to  get  used  to  this.  Some  day,  perhaps,  it  will  be 
different,  but  not  until  herds  and  flocks  have  been  substi- 
tuted and  entirely  new  ideas  have  patiently  been  instilled 
into  the  minds  of  these  people.  For  the  time  being  dog 
flesh  is  their  most  cherished  article  of  diet. 

I  wish  it  were  known  just  where  these  curious  wild  tribes 
came  from;  just  what  their  race  history  is.  They  are  as 
unlike  Filipinos  as  American  Indians  are  unlike  English- 
men. They  have  but  one  thing  in  common  with  the  Fili- 
pinos, and  that  is  their  colour,  which  is  a  soft,  dark  brown. 
There  is  hardly  an  American  who  has  ever  lived  among  them 
for  any  length  of  time  who  has  not  a  real  admiration  and 
affection  for  them  and  yet,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  they 
are  naked  savages.  They  are  most  amenable  to  civilis- 
ing influences.  They  take  to  education  eagerly.  They  are, 
in  their  physical  development,  beautiful  to  look  upon — when 

192 


•M* 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

they  are  cleaned  up — perfectly  formed,  straight  and  mus- 
cular, with  features  strongly  marked  and  with  wide,  clear 
eyes  which  inspire  confidence.  They  are  entirely  fearless; 
and  they  are  loyal  to  the  "last  ditch."  Also,  it  is  these 
same  incomprehensible  "naked  savages"  who  have  built  the 
thousands  of  acres  of  rice  terraces  which  are  a  marvel  and  a 
mystery  to  every  irrigation  expert  or  technical  engineer  who 
has  ever  seen  them. 

Bontoc,  which  we  reached  after  a  day's  weary,  wet  riding 
over  slippery  trails  from  Sagada,  is  the  capital  of  what  is  now 
known  as  the  Mountain  province.  For  the  first  time  in  their 
known  history  the  Igorrotes  are  united  under  one  central 
government,  each  tribe  having  its  lieutenant  governor — an 
American  always.  There  are  the  Benguets,  the  Bon  toes,  the 
Ifugaos,  the  Ilongots,  the  Kalingas  and  others,  and  they 
have  been  engaged  in  inter-tribal  warfare  since  time  began, 
their  chief  pleasure  being  derived  from  the  taking  of  each 
other's  heads.  When  I  went  into  the  Igorrote  country  head- 
hunting was  still  in  full  force  and  houses  were  still  decorated 
with  festoons  of  human  skulls,  while  no  man  ever  ventured 
forth,  even  to  his  rice-fields,  without  his  spear  and  shield  and 
head-axe.  They  all  carry  spears  even  yet,  but  head-hunt- 
ing, having  been  made  by  the  American  government  a  capi- 
tal offence,  is  not  so  popular.  Mr.  Dean  C.  Worcester,  as 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  in  direct  charge  of  all  wild  tribes, 
actually  succeeded  in  introducing  substitutes  for  the  sport  in 
the  form  of  baseball  and  other  inter-tribal  athletic  contests 
and  peaceful,  though  rough  and  strenuous  pastimes.  For 
fourteen  years  Mr.  Worcester  was  to  these  children  of  the 
hills  a  most  highly  respected  Apo-apo, — chief  of  chiefs. 

Miss  Bubb,  my  sister  Maria  and  I  were  the  first  white 
women  who  ever  set  foot  in  Bontoc  and  to  say  that  we  created 
a  sensation  is  to  describe  our  reception  too  mildly.  We 
were  the  guests  of  three  American  miners  who  had  a  com- 
fortable house  and  who,  having  lived  among  the  Igorrotes 

193 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

for  a  long  time — one  of  them  for  more  than  a  year  without 
visiting  civilisation — could  give  us  much  interesting  first- 
hand information.  The  people  gathered  around  us  in 
hordes,  but  they  kept  at  a  respectful,  not  to  say  a  reverential, 
distance.  I  think  they  were  afraid  of  us;  especially  the 
women,  not  one  of  whom  would  let  us  look  at  her  baby. 
But  we  were  used  to  that.  Many  Christian  Filipinos  believe 
firmly  in  the  "evil  eye."  There  was  one  little  dwarf  who 
was  bolder  than  the  rest  and  who  followed  us  everywhere 
we  went.  He  was  like  a  little,  brown,  toy-child,  beautifully 
formed,  and  looking  not  more  than  one  year  old,  but  we  were 
told  that  he  was  at  least  fourteen. 

Everybody  wanted  to  give  us  things.  The  evening  I 
arrived  I  received  a  present  from  one  of  the  headmen,  of 
three  live  chickens,  and  the  next  day,  as  we  were  picking 
our  way  through  the  native  village,  another  man  ran  after 
me  and,  very  graciously  and  gracefully,  presented  me  with 
two  fresh  eggs.  We  learned  to  say  "mapud"  which  means 
"good,"  and,  in  connection  with  smiles  and  gestures,  found 
it  served  us  famously  for  all  purposes  of  social  intercourse. 

Bon  toe  is  in  a  deep  valley,  on  the  bank  of  a  wide,  swift 
river  and  surrounded  by  close  sheltering  hills,  so  it  is  not  as 
cold  as  it  is  in  Sagada  and  some  other  places  we  visited; 
but  it  is  cold  enough,  and  I  failed  to  understand  how  the 
natives  could  live  in  a  state  of  almost  complete  nakedness. 
But  they  do  and,  in  fact,  all  these  people  do,  even  in  the 
coldest  regions.  The  Bontoc  Igorrote  wears  a  very  bright- 
coloured  clout  called  a  "G-string"  with  a  heavy,  brass  chain 
around  his  waist,  while  his  long,  black  hair  is  tucked  into  a 
little,  flat,  straw  hat  which  is  fastened,  in  some  mysterious 
way,  on  the  back  of  his  head.  They  nearly  all  wear  heavy, 
brass  earrings  which  make  their  ears  unsightly,  and  the  Bon- 
toc "dandy"  usually  has  a  long,  black,  homemade  and  half- 
smoked  cigar  tucked  behind  one  ear  for  all  the  world  like 
the  pencil  of  an  absentminded  bookkeeper. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

We  had  canyaos,  or  bonfires  with  "head-dances,"  and  all 
the  strange  varieties  of  entertainment  provided  by  the  vil- 
lage headmen.  The  musical  instrument  of  the  Igorrote  is 
called  a  ganza,  which  is  a  round  brass  gong  with  a  handle 
made  of  a  human  jaw-bone,  upon  which  the  "musician" 
beats  a  rhythmical  measure  with  a  soft,  padded  mallet  as  he 
whirls  and  twists  in  his  fantastic  dance.  These  ganzas — 
some  of  them  very  old, — are  tribal  rather  than  individual 
property  and  it  is  very  difficult  to  induce  their  owners  to 
part  with  them.  Their  value  is  computed  in  carabaos  in- 
stead of  in  rice,  or  in  dollars  and  cents.  If  you  should  ask 
an  Igorrote  how  much  he  would  take  for  his  ganza^  espe- 
cially if  it  were  one  associated  with  tribal  history,  he  would 
very  likely  look  smilingly  solemn  and  say:  "One  hundred 
carabao,"  or  any  other  prohibitive  number  that  might  hap- 
pen to  occur  to  him.  This  is  a  form  of  racial  pride  and  de- 
serves respect. 

We  went  from  Bontoc  back  through  Sagada  to  Cervantes, 
and  then  started  down  the  long,  narrow  trail  straight  through 
the  mountains  to  Baguio.  At  Cervantes  we  received  our 
first  messages  from  Manila  and,  among  other  things,  was  an 
order  to  Major  Stevens  to  report  for  duty.  His  going  gave 
us  an  opportunity  to  send  letters  down  and  report  ourselves 
alive  and  not  at  all  anxious  to  get  home,  but  we  didn't  like 
losing  the  Major.  We  had,  by  this  time,  become  a  very 
well-acquainted,  well-disciplined  and  congenial  party  and 
we  disliked  seeing  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  our  expedi- 
tion. General  Bell  directed  everything  and  joined  in  our 
sports  and  foolishness  whenever  he  could  do  so  without  en- 
dangering the  dignity  of  the  "corps,"  but,  while  he  was  kind- 
ness itself,  he  was  so  strict  with  the  young  officers  that  we 
had  sometimes  to  steal  our  opportunities  for  relaxation. 

A  few  hours'  riding  south  from  Cervantes  are  some  famous 
copper  mines  which  were  owned  by  a  Spanish  syndicate. 
We  turned  off  in  their  direction  and  came  into  a  most  ex- 

195 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

traordinary  country.  The  whole  face  of  the  landscape 
looks  like  corroded  copper,  and  the  great,  scarred  gulches 
where  the  ore  has  been  taken  out  make  one  think  of  chaos, 
or  dreams  of  an  inferno.  I  don't  know  how  to  express  an 
idea  of  bigness  in  a  mere  touch  of  description  as  I  pass  on 
through  the  story  of  this  trip,  but  I  want  to  convey  an  im- 
pression of  overwhelming  size  in  everything.  It  is  a  great, 
wild  world  where  one  sees  miles  in  every  direction  and  where 
nature  seems  to  have  done  everything  on  a  gigantic  scale. 

A  mile  or  so  beyond  the  copper  mines  we  came  upon  a 
veritable  mountain  paradise, — from  our  point  of  view,  at 
least.  It  was  the  home  of  Don  Jose  Mills,  a  Spaniard  who, 
for  some  unknown  reason,  had  banished  himself  to  this  out- 
of-the-world  spot  and,  with  what  labour  and  pains  can  only 
be  imagined,  had  made  for  himself  a  civilised  abode.  I 
was  shown  to  a  room  all  by  myself,  which  had  in  it  a  real 
bed  with  springs  and  a  mattress.  It  was  the  first  one  I  had 
seen  for  I  don't  know  how  long.  I  regarded  it  with  great 
curiosity  at  first,  then  I  sat  down  on  it  most  respectfully. 
I  lay  down  and  stretched  myself  out;  then  I  pulled  up  a 
soft  blanket  and,  though  it  was  only  midday,  nothing  short 
of  the  gravest  emergency  could  have  induced  me  to  move. 
The  emergency  presented  itself,  finally,  in  the  form  of  lunch- 
eon and  I  discovered  that  Don  Jose  had  returned  hurriedly 
from  Candon  in  order  to  entertain  us  and  that  he  had  brought 
with  him  everything  in  the  form  of  food  and  liquid  refresh- 
ments that  he  could  find.  The  result  was  a  triumph,  and 
we  decided  that  we  should  like  to  remain  under  his  hospi- 
table roof  indefinitely. 

That  night,  amid  much  merriment,  we  initiated  our  host 
into  the  mysteries  and  secrets  of  a  little  society  we  had 
formed  and  which  we  called  the  Earring  Club.  Our  in- 
signia was  a  big,  brass  Igorrote  earring,  and  we  had  signs 
and  pass-words,  to  say  nothing  of  a  song  which  nobody  but 
ourselves  could  sing.  We  appropriated  the  Cavalry  tune 

196 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

of  "For  Seven  Long  Years  I've  Courted  Nancy,"  but  the 
words  were  our  own  and  it  was  not  difficult  to  supply  a  new 
verse  to  fit  each  incident  or  occasion  as  it  came  along.  The 
song  began: 

For  twelve  long  days  we've  hiked  through  mountains, 

Heigh  ho!     Cross  roaring  rivers! 
For  twelve  long  days  we've  hiked  through  mountains, 

Ha!  Ha!     While  on  our  way  through  wild  Lepanto! 

Up  at  Sagada  we  came  upon  the  only  bed  of  mint  that 
any  of  us  had  ever  seen  in  the  Philippines,  and  as  General 
Bell  had  almost  an  inspired  knowledge  as  to  what  mint  was 
originally  intended  for,  this  gave  us  material  for  three  new 
verses : 

One  rainy  day  we  reached  Sagada, 

Heigh  ho !     Among  the  rice  fields ! 
One  rainy  day  we  reached  Sagada, 

Ha!  Ha!     As  we  toiled  along  o'er  the  hills  of  Bontoc! 

A  place  most  sweet  with  fragrant  mint-beds, 

Heigh  ho!     How  did  it  get  there? 
A  place  most  sweet  with  fragrant  mint-beds, 

Ha!  Ha!     'Way  high  up  in  the  hills  of  Bontoc! 

We  didn't  do  a  thing  but  make  a  julep, 

Heigh  ho!     Without  the  cracked  ice! 
We  didn't  do  a  thing  but  make  a  julep, 

Ha!  Ha!     With  the  mint  we  found  in  the  hills  of  Bontoc! 

It  was  a  free-for-all  composition  contest;  anybody  was 
likely  to  produce  a  new  verse,  or  even  a  whole  new  song  with 
a  different  tune,  at  any  moment,  and  we  shortened  many  a 
long  mile  with  such  nonsense. 

At  Don  Jose's  we  not  only  sang  all  our  songs  for  the  bene- 
fit of  our  host,  but  one  of  our  number  produced  a  harmon- 
ica, on  which  he  played  very  well  indeed,  and  we  had  an 
impromptu  baile.  Then  we  "dropped  the  handkerchief," 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

"followed  the  leader,"  gave  some  original  renderings  of 
German  Grand  Opera,  played  Puss-in-the-corner,  and  fin- 
ished the  evening  with  our  feet  on  a  fender  before  a  great, 
open  fire,  recounting,  with  much  appreciated  embellishments, 
our  interesting  experiences. 

We  knew  we  should  not  find  any  place  as  delightful  as 
Don  Jose's  again, — not  even  in  Manila,  because  Manila 
would  be  hot, — so  it  was  with  great  reluctance  that  we 
obeyed  orders  to  be  ready  to  leave  the  next  morning  at  six. 
This  meant  getting  out  of  our  comfortable,  civilised  beds  at 
five  o'clock,  while  the  stars  would  still  be  out,  and  when 
the  ashes  of  our  evening's  fire  would  be  cold  and  grey  on  the 
hearth.  It  was  a  cheerless  thought,  but  we  had  to  "get  to 
Loo"  said  General  Bell. 

It  was  raining — of  course — and  there  was  not  much 
scenery  visible  except  when  the  clouds  would  float  upward, 
now  and  then,  like  veils  lifted  off  grand  panoramas,  but 
by  this  time  we  had  ceased  to  consider  the  weather.  When 
we  got  to  Loo  we  found  the  "town"  consisted  of  just  two 
empty  log  huts,  one  with  a  plaited  reed  floor,  the  other  with 
no  floor  at  all,  and  neither  of  them  with  any  sort  of  partition. 
We  stretched  a  rope  across  the  middle  of  the  better  one,  hung 
Igorrote  blankets  on  it  by  way  of  a  screen,  and  prepared  to 
make  ourselves  comfortable  on  the,  fortunately  flexible, 
floor;  ladies  on  one  side,  gentlemen  on  the  other.  But  along 
late  in  the  afternoon  a  pack  train  of  mules  and  Igorrotes  and 
orderlies  arrived  from  the  south  bringing  us  the  astonishing 
news  that  the  Commissioners  were  only  a  few  miles  behind 
and  expected  to  camp  that  night  at  Loo ! 

The  rain  had  settled  down  into  a  dreary,  soaking  patter; 
it  was  cold;  we  were  all  wet;  there  was  no  place  for  a  fire; 
and,  altogether,  we  were  fairly  uncomfortable. 

The  Commissioners,  Mr.  Worcester  and  Mr.  Moses,  with 
their  private  secretaries  and  a  doctor — five  in  all — came 
along  about  an  hour  behind  their  pack  train.  They 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

straggled  in  one  by  one,  very  grumpy,  and  we  decided  right 
away  that  they  had  not  been  taught,  as  we  had  been,  to 
make  the  best  of  everything  and  to  cultivate  sociability  on 
the  trail.  They  had  had  a  much  more  difficult  day's  riding 
than  we  because  the  trail  up  is  much  harder  than  the  trail 
down,  but  we  were  pretty  certain,  on  the  whole,  that  we  were 
much  the  better  managed  party. 

With  more  Igorrote  blankets  we  arranged  another  parti- 
tion in  the  hut  to  make  room  for  them,  then  we  gave  them  a 
good  hot  dinner — cooked  in  the  tent  which  had  been  put  up 
for  kitchen  purposes — and  immediately  a  social  thaw  set  in. 
We  got  all  the  news  from  Manila  that  we  were  so  anxious 
for,  and  all  the  latest  gossip.  The  news  was  disquieting. 
A  cablegram  had  come  announcing  that  the  Supreme  Court 
had  decided  there  should  be  no  duties  in  Porto  Rico  against 
United  States  imports,  and  instructing  the  Commission  to 
suspend  all  legislation  in  the  Philippine  Islands  until  fur- 
ther notice.  This  might  mean  anything,  but  whatever  else 
it  meant  it  certainly  meant  renewed  uncertainty  and  the  pos- 
sibility that  no  change  in  the  government  would  be  made 
until  after  Congress  met. 

The  politics  of  the  situation  were  extremely  complicated 
and  seemed  to  revolve  around  a  question  which,  because  of  a 
rather  pugnacious  manner  of  expressing  it,  had  become  a 
popular  clamour.  The  question  was:  "Does  the  Consti- 
tution follow  the  Flag4?"  In  other  words,  really,  could 
duties  be  collected  on  imports  from  one  American  port  to 
another?  In  any  case,  the  question  in  respect  to  us  was 
one  for  Congress  to  answer  and  it  seemed  to  me  we  were  fac- 
ing another  long  period  of  uneasiness  and  delay. 

We  knew  the  entire  Commission  had  expected  to  make  a 
trip  in  June  for  the  purpose  of  organising  the  Christian  prov- 
inces in  the  far  north  beyond  the  Mountain  Province,  but 
they  were  halted  by  the  order  to  suspend  definite  activities, 
and  Commissioners  Worcester  and  Moses  had  taken  advan- 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

tage  of  the  "breathing  spell"  to  run  up  into  the  mountains 
and  inspect  proposed  routes  for  roads  and  railways.  That 
is  how  we  happened  to  encounter  them  at  Loo.  We  shared 
their  opinion  that  one  of  the  greatest  things  that  could  be 
'done  for  the  country  was  to  make  the  mountains  of  central 
Luzon,  with  their  glorious  climate,  easily  accessible.  The 
trails  as  we  found  them  were  mere  paths  worn  by  the  feet 
of  Igorrotes  and,  besides  being  very  narrow,  were  at  such 
grades  as  to  make  them  in  many  places  all  but  impassable. 
The  party,  highly  representative  of  American  authority  in 
the  Islands,  as  it  was,  sat  around  on  the  bamboo  floor,  hud- 
dled up  in  blankets,  and  talked  long  into  the  night  about 
hopes  and  fears  and  governmental  problems  of  great  diffi- 
culty and  importance. 

We  left  Loo  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  after  eight 
straight  hours  of  the  hardest  work  we  had  yet  been  called 
upon  to  do,  we  arrived  at  Cabayan.  According  to  my  own 
diary:  "I  was  completely  tired.  The  greater  part  of  the 
way  we  rode  through  beautiful  pine  forests,  but  up  and 
down  hills  as  steep  as  the  side  of  a  house;  across  rivers,  and 
up  a  waterfall."  This  sounds  like  pretty  heavy  going,  but 
my  account  of  it  written  at  the  time  was,  I  am  sure,  only 
slightly  exaggerated.  I  remember  distinctly  that  from  Loo 
to  Baguio,  five  full  days,  we  walked  a  great  part  of  the  way ; 
and  not  only  did  we  walk,  but  we  rendered  necessary  assist- 
ance to  our  horses  which,  giving  out  one  by  one,  had  to  be 
dragged  up  the  steep  grades  and  "eased"  down  the  opposite 
sides  in  a  way  that  would  have  been  highly  ludicrous  had 
we  been  engaged  in  anything  but  a  very  serious  business. 
Only  the  steady  old  mules  plodded  along  "without  a  word," 
and  found  their  own  way  in  safety  around  the  dangerous 
turns. 

After  leaving  Bontoc  we  travelled  down  through  Nueva 
Viscaya  and  into  Benguet,  the  southermost  division  of  the 
Mountain  province.  At  Cabayan  we  had  for  camping  quar- 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

ters  a  large  presidencia  and  schoolhouse  combined,  while  a 
tent  was  put  up  and  rudely  equipped  for  bathing  purposes. 
This  was  luxury  indeed,  and  we  began  to  think  that  we  had 
left  all  hardship  behind  us ;  but  the  next  night,  after  a  seven 
hours'  "hike"  over  a  terrible  trail,  we  found  shelter  in  a 
miserable  hut  with  only  one  room  which  we  all  had  to  oc- 
cupy, with  Igorrote  blankets  for  partitions. 

The  Igorrotes  grew  less  and  less  interesting  as  we  went 
along  and  displayed  few  evidences  of  the  industry  and  thrift 
which  characterise  the  more  northern  tribes.  The  moun- 
tains are  higher  and  the  scenes  are  broader  and  more  wonder- 
ful at  the  southern  end  of  the  range,  but  the  only  cultivation 
we  came  upon  was  in  the  villages  and  along  the  banks  of  the 
little  rushing  streams.  It  was  evident  that  we  were  ap- 
proaching "civilisation."  Here  and  there  we  went  through 
small  groves  of  coffee  trees,  beautiful  in  a  wealth  of  snow- 
white  blossoms,  but  evidently' deserted,  and  wretchedly 
ragged  and  unkempt. 

Baguio,  now  the  summer  capital  of  the  Philippine  Islands, 
the  "Philippine  Simla,"  as  it  is  so  often  called,  lies  at  the 
top  of  what  has  become  justly  celebrated  as  "the  magnifi- 
cent Benguet  Road,"  the  building  of  which  has  been  the  sub- 
ject of  more  controversy  than  almost  any  other  one  thing 
that  American  authority  and  enterprise  has  accomplished  in 
the  Islands.  The  Benguet  Road  when  I  first  saw  it  was 
known  as  "Mead's  Trail,"  so  named  in  honour  of  the  engi- 
neer who  made  the  original  survey  for  it,  and  in  some  places 
it  was  nothing  more  than  a  thin  line  drawn  against  perpen- 
dicular cliffs  to  indicate  where  cutting  was  to  be  done. 

Let  somebody  else  argue  the  question  as  to  whether  or 
not  this  road  has  justified  the  faith  of  the  men  who  built  it. 
My  husband  and  his  colleagues  were  responsible  for  the  be- 
ginning of  it  and  Mr.  Taft  authorised  the  payment  of  the 
large  sums  of  money  which  went  into  it,  but  he  does  not  in 
the  least  object  to  honest  criticism  of  the  project.  His  only 

201 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

question  is:  "How  else  could  we  have  accomplished  what 
we  did?"  For  which  there  is  no  satisfactory  answer.  I 
have  ridden  over  it  since  it  was  completed  and,  in  common 
with  a  majority  of  those  who  have  enjoyed  this  privilege,  I 
am  strongly  prejudiced  in  its  favour.  There  are  few,  if  any 
roads  in  the  world  more  spectacular,  or  which  represent  a 
greater  triumph  of  engineering  skill.  Fairly  hewn  out  of 
the  almost  solid,  but  too  crumbling,  walls  of  the  Bued  River 
Canyon,  it  winds  for  about  seventeen  miles  through  con- 
stantly changing  scenes  of  extraordinary  grandeur,  then  it 
strikes  the  foothills  of  the  mountains  and  rises  in  a  succes- 
sion of  splendid  upward  sweeps  to  an  altitude  of  more  than 
five  thousand  feet  in  less  than  six  miles. 

The  Benguet  Road  was  originally  a  railway  project  and 
was  to  have  been  built  by  the  British  company  which  owns 
the  Manila  and  Dagupan  Railway.  But  this  syndicate 
wanted  a  perpetual  grant  and  a  guarantee  from  the  govern- 
ment which  could  not  then  be  given.  It  was  necessary,  in 
any  case,  to  build  a  wagon-road  before  railway  construction 
could  be  started  and  Captain  Mead,  who  was  sent  out  at  the 
head  of  a  surveying  party,  reported  that  such  a  road  would 
cost  at  least  $50,000,  or  $75,000.  The  Commission  appro- 
priated the  $50,000  and  issued  orders  to  have  the  work  be- 
gun, fully  expecting  to  have  to  add  another  $25,000  be- 
fore the  road  was  finished.  Nobody  knows  what  character 
of  road  Captain  Mead  had  in  mind  when  he  made  his  esti- 
mate, but  it  transpired  that  nothing  short  of  first-class  con- 
struction would  last  through  even  one  heavy  rain.  Besides, 
the  Bued  River  Canyon  had  to  be  spanned  six  or  eight  times 
with  tremendous  suspension  bridges,  and  before  the  project 
was  completed  an  unwilling  government  had  spent  something 
like  $2,500,000  on  it.  This  was  spread  over  a  period  of 
years,  of  course,  and  much  of  it  went  for  necessary  improve- 
ments or  for  the  replacement  of  storm-wrecked  bridges  and 

202 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

graded  sections,  but  its  enemies  like  to  refer  to  it  as  our  two 
and  a  half  million  dollar  road. 

The  Manila  and  Dagupan  Railway  company  extended  its 
road  up  to  the  point  where  the  Benguet  Road  begins  and 
thus  a  way  was  opened  into  the  only  region  in  the  Philip- 
pines where  one  may  find  really  invigorating  air.  And 
while  the  road  was  building  Baguio  development  began.  A 
United  States  Army  Camp  was  established  on  a  ridge  over- 
looking a  wide  range  of  pine-covered  hills,  and  a  hospital 
was  erected  for  the  accommodation  of  invalid  soldiers  who, 
before  these  facilities  for  taking  care  of  them  were  provided, 
had  always,  at  great  expense  to  the  government,  to  be  sent 
back  to  the  United  States.  A  civil  hospital  and  tuberculosis 
camp  were  opened;  good  hotels  under  private  ownership 
soon  took  the  place  of  field  tents  and  rough  board  shacks; 
markets  and  stores  were  started,  bringing  in  supplies  in 
wholesale  lots,  and  fair-sized  buildings  soon  began  to  go  up 
in  a  substantial  business  section;  people  began  to  build 
houses  as  rapidly  as  builders  could  be  found  to  do  the  work; 
churches  and  schools  began  to  appear  where  nothing  was  be- 
fore; a  summer  camp  for  the  recuperation  of  thousands  of 
public-school  teachers  was  started  in  a  high  valley  carpeted 
with  pine-needles,  and  lecture  courses  for  vacation  instruc- 
tion were  instituted;  a  country  club  was  organised  with  golf 
links,  a  baseball  diamond,  polo  grounds,  tennis  courts  and 
everything  that  goes  to  make  a  country  club  successful.  The 
plan  of  the  city  was  drawn  by  Architect  Burnham  of  Chi- 
cago, who  visited  Benguet  for  the  purpose,  and  a  great  cen- 
tral plaza  was  provided  with  artistic,  but  inexpensive  build- 
ings for  the  accommodation  of  the  two  branches  of  the  gov- 
ernment. Cottages  in  rows  went  up  almost  overnight;  rich 
Filipinos  and  a  few  Americans  built  fine  homes ;  beautifully 
metalled  drives  began  to  wind  in  and  out  and  over  and 
around  the  hills,  and  a  high-class  government  automobile 

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'bus  line  was  put  on  the  Benguet  Road  which  is  the  delight 
of  every  American  or  other  foreigner  in  the  Islands,  as  well 
as  of  many  hundreds  of  Filipinos  who  annually  take  advan- 
tage of  this  wholly  novel  opportunity  to  reach  a  salubrious 
climate  in  their  own  land,  and  by  a  route  which  in  any 
European  country  would  attract  scores  of  thrill-seeking  tour- 
ists. 

And  so  the  Philippine  Simla  was  begun.  Its  friends,  or, 
in  other  words,  most  people  have  dreams  of  a  great  future 
for  it  when  it  shall  be  a  thriving,  prosperous  city  and  a  health 
resort  for  everybody  "east  of  Suez"  who  needs  to  seek  near 
by  a  temperate  and  invigourating  climate. 

It  is  six  years  since  I  saw  Baguio,  for  I  visited  it  the  last 
time  in  1907,  but  even  then  I  could  not  believe  that  it  was 
built  on  the  ground  that  I  had  ridden  over  and  found  prac- 
tically uninhabited  only  six  years  before.  At  that  time  a 
provincial  government  had  been  organised,  and  an  American, 
Mr.  Phelps  Whitmarsh,  who  was  a  writer  and  had  lived 
among  the  Igorrotes  a  long  time,  was  appointed  governor. 
But  he  was  governor  of  a  wild-tribe  province  which  did  not 
then  boast  any  greater  signs  of  civilisation  than  winding 
foot  trails  and  a  few  groups  of  low-thatched  huts  which 
were  known  as  towns. 

We  rode  in  from  Trinidad,  not  many  miles  from  Baguio, 
on  the  morning  of  the  23rd  of  June  and  went  straight  to  the 
governor's  "mansion."  We  were  welcomed  by  Mrs.  Whit- 
marsh  into  a  nipa-roofed,  suali  house  which,  though  it  was 
quite  large,  had  no  partitions  except  such  as  were  made  of 
bamboo  screens  and  hangings  of  bright-coloured  Igorrote 
cloths.  But  it  had  a  big,  open  fireplace  and  a  fine  blaze 
from  odorous  pine  boughs  was  crackling  up  the  chimney. 
This  seemed  particularly  cosy  and  delightful  to  us  because 
we  had  just  been  camping  in  native  huts  in  which  the  only 
place  for  a  fire  was  a  square  of  earth  in  the  middle  of  the 

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floor  and  we  were  not  only  quite  frozen  but  we  were  thor- 
oughly smoked. 

At  Baguio  we  got  letters  and  telegrams  from  Manila  and 
one  of  the  telegrams  announced  my  husband's  appointment 
as  Governor  of  the  Islands,  so  I  knew  that  an  adjustment  of 
state  affairs  had  been  made  and  that  I  should  reach  Manila 
to  begin  a  new  era  in  my  Philippine  experience.  Mr.  Taft 
wrote  me  that  the  plans  for  his  inauguration  were  practically 
complete  and  that  he  was  issuing  cards  for  a  big  reception  in 
honour  of  General  MacArthur  at  our  house  on  the  evening  of 
the  Fourth  of  July.  This  filled  me  with  something  like 
panic,  because  I  didn't  expect  to  reach  Manila  until  after 
the  first  of  July  and  I  didn't  see  how  I  could  get  ready  on 
such  short  notice  to  entertain  hundreds  of  people.  How- 
ever, it  was  not  for  me  to  enter  a  protest  on  such  a  score,  so 
it  was  decided  that  we  would  go  down  as  soon  as  we  possibly 
could. 

We  spent  two  days  enjoying  the  delightful  hospitality  of 
our  friends  in  Baguio  and  in  exploring  the  country  round 
about,  and  I,  after  listening  to  builders'  dreams  of  what  was 
to  be  and  now  is,  proceeded  to  select  a  site  for  my  own  future 
summer  home. 

We  sat  around  a  roaring  fire  of  an  evening  and  sang  all 
our  songs,  rather  ruefully;  we  recounted  our  many  adven- 
tures, and  expressed  our  sincere  regret  that  our  holiday  was 
over;  then  on  the  morning  of  the  25th  of  June,  at  the  dreary 
hour  of  half  past  four,  we  mounted  our  refreshed  and  rested 
horses  and  started  down  the  long  Naguilian  trail  to  the  coast. 
I  wish  only  to  add  that  the  heat  in  the  lowlands,  after  our 
long  breath  of  white  man's  air  in  the  mountains,  was  almost 
more  than  we  could  stand,  and  I  made  the  fatal  mistake  of 
leaving  Baguio  in  a  heavy  flannel  riding  shirt  and  with  no 
thin  blouse  handy  to  take  its  place. 

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CHAPTER  X 

GOVERNOR   TAFT 

THERE  is  no  denying  that  the  arrangements  made,  during 
my  absence  in  the  north,  for  my  participation  in  the  events 
attending  my  husband's  induction  into  the  office  of  Governor 
of  the  Philippines  were  enough  to  fill  me  with  dismay. 

Mr.  Taft  had  issued  two  thousand  invitations  for  the  re- 
ception at  our  house  in  honour  of  General  MacArthur,  and 
on  my  way  down  from  Baguio  I  had  been  spending  my  time 
wondering  how  I  should  take  care  of  the  three  or  four  hun- 
dred I  imagined  had  been  asked.  I  had  received  no  informa- 
tion more  definite  than  the  simple  statement  that  invitations 
had  been  sent  out,  and  it  was  not  until  I  reached  Manila 
that  I  learned  the  startling  number.  I  thought  my  husband 
knew  something  about  the  limitations  of  our  house,  but  I 
found  that  he  had  not  taken  this  important  matter  into  con- 
sideration at  all. 

Fortunately  we  had  a  large  garden  in  fairly  good  condi- 
tion by  this  time,  so  I  immediately  went  to  work  and  had 
it  decorated  with  long  lines  and  festoons  of  Japanese  lan- 
terns ;  I  ordered  a  large  refreshment  tent  put  up  in  the  middle 
of  the  wide  lawn;  then  I  sat  down  and  prayed  for  fair 
weather.  It  was  the  rainy  season  and  I  knew  that  only  a 
specially  importuned  Providence  could  keep  the  afternoon  of 
the  Fourth  of  July  clear. 

The  inauguration  of  the  first  American  Governor  was  an 
occasion  of  great  dignity  and  interest.  The  ceremony  took 
place  on  a  platform  erected  at  one  end  of  a  large  square  in  the 
Walled  City  which  is  enclosed  on  one  side  by  the  Ayuntami- 
ento,  or  Insular  Capitol,  and  on  another  by  the  Cathedral. 
The  foundations  of  the  Inaugural  stand  were  of  historic 
interest  in  that  they  were  originally  intended  to  support 

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a  magnificent  residence  for  Spanish  Governors-General  and 
were  on  the  site  of  the  ancient  gubernatorial  mansion  which 
was  destroyed  by  an  earthquake  in  1863.  The  rebuilding 
had  never  progressed  beyond  the  laying  of  the  massive 
granite  base,  and  this  still  stands  as  a  mute  reminder  to 
progressive  Americans  of  the  dilatory  and  otherwise  ques- 
tionable methods  which  once  obtained  in  the  Philippine  gov- 
ernment. 

The  Cathedral  Plaza — since  renamed  Plaza  McKinley — 
presented  a  memorable  scene  that  Fourth  of  July  morning. 
The  architectural  grace  and  time-mellowed  colours  of  the 
old  Spanish  buildings  blended  with  the  rich  luxuriance  of 
many-hued  tropic  plants  and  the  green  of  spreading  acacias. 
American  flags  covered  the  canopied  platforms  and  floated 
from  every  possible  point  of  vantage.  Americans  and  Fili- 
pinos, all  in  gala  attire,  were  pressed  close  together  in  the 
spectators'  stands  which  extended  on  either  side  of  the  cen- 
tral pavilion;  the  plaza  below  was  thronged  with  Filipinos 
of  every  rank  and  condition,  in  all  manner  of  bright  jusis 
and  calicos ;  while  above  the  crowd  towered  many  American 
soldiers  and  sailors  in  spic-and-span  khaki  or  white  duck. 

The  programme  was  much  like  other  programmes.  Gen- 
eral MacArthur  and  his  staff  occupied  the  centre  of  the  plat- 
form. A  well  trained  and  finely  conducted  Filipino  band 
played  several  numbers;  there  was  a  prayer  and  an  invoca- 
tion ;  then  my  husband,  looking  larger  even  than  his  natural 
size  in  his  crisp  white  linen  suit,  stepped  to  the  front  of  the 
platform  and  stood  gravely  looking  down  upon  the  stocky 
little  Chief  Justice  of  the  Archipelago,  Senor  Arellano,  who 
administered  the  oath  of  office.  Afterward  Mr.  Taft  and 
Mr.  Fergusson  stood  together  and  delivered,  in  English  and 
Spanish,  paragraph  by  paragraph  in  translation,  the  Inau- 
gural address. 

I  think  only  one  unfortunate  incident  occurred  to  mar  the 
complete  harmony  of  the  occasion,  and  that  was  furnished 

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by  a  United  States  Congressman  of  the  Military  Committee 
of  the  House,  who  was  visiting  Manila  at  the  time. 

Tickets  of  admission  to  the  central  pavilion  had  been  sent 
to  him,  but  he  had  forgotten  to  bring  them  with  him.  How- 
ever, when  he  arrived  at  the  plaza  he  started,  with  several 
ladies  who  were  with  him,  to  mount  the  steps  of  the  Inau- 
gural platform  on  which  no  ladies  were  allowed.  He  was 
stopped,  naturally,  and  a  guard  offered  to  conduct  his  guests 
to  seats  on  a  side  pavilion,  telling  him  at  the  time  that  the 
central  stand  had  been  reserved  for  government  officials  and 
representatives,  among  whom  he,  of  course,  was  included. 
This  separate  seating  of  the  ladies  seemed  to  annoy  him  for 
some  reason,  and  he  announced  his  intention  of  remaining 
with  his  party.  He  was  then  shown  to  the  best  available 
seats  and  the  incident  seemed  to  be  closed.  But  he  was  by 
no  means  satisfied  with  his  position,  especially  when  he  found 
that  the  wives  of  some  of  the  Commissioners  had  seats  in 
front  of  him.  I  think  the  heat  must  have  been  affecting 
him  for  he  called  the  Naval  Lieutenant,  who  was  in  charge 
as  usher,  and  made  audible  protest  against  "those  wives  of 
clerks"  being  put  before  him  and  his  wife.  The  young 
naval  officer  was  polite,  but  quite  firm  in  his  refusal  to  take 
any  steps  to  remedy  matters. 

"You  don't  seem  to  know  who  I  am !"  he  exclaimed,  with 
manifest  indignation. 

"No,  sir,  I  do  not,"  mildly  replied  the  Lieutenant. 

"Well,"  said  the  angry  man,  "I'm  a  member  of  the  Mili- 
tary Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  I  helped 
to  make  this  Army  out  here  and  I've  come  out  to  see  what 
kind  of  work  I  did.  I  don't  like  it,  and  I'm  going  home  and 
unmake  it.  This  treatment  of  me  here  is  of  a  piece  with  the 
treatment  I've  received  ever  since  I've  been  in  these  islands." 

This  didn't  sound  quite  fair.  He  had  been  treated  with 
marked  courtesy  by  everybody  and  had  accepted  rather  lavish 
hospitality  from  both  Army  officers  and  civil  officials.  In 

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fact,  he  had  received  every  possible  attention  in  a  most  un- 
usually hospitable  community.  The  young  Lieutenant 
bristled  up  and  said: 

"Sorry,  sir,  but  I'm  obeying  orders ;  and  I'd  just  like  to  tell 
you  that  I  consider  your  remarks  exceedingly  impolite." 

Upon  which  the  gentleman  from  Washington  left  the 
pavilion  and  went  down  to  stand  in  a  place  which  the  guards 
had  been  ordered  to  keep  clear. 

The  rest  of  the  story  I  heard  afterward.  It  seems  that 
both  General  Barry  and  General  Davis  saw  him  and  took 
pains  to  go  down  and  ask  him  up  into  the  central  pavilion, 
but  he  refused  to  go.  Then  one  of  the  guards  came  up  and 
politely  informed  him:  "Orders,  sir,  you'll  have  to  stand 
back."  By  this  time  he  was  infuriated  and  he  turned  on  the 
guard  and,  after  identifying  himself,  repeated  his  remarks 
about  having  made  the  Army  and  being  determined  to  go 
back  to  Washington  and  unmake  it. 

"Well,"  said  the  guard,  "I  guess  you  can't  unmake  me. 
I've  just  been  mustered  out  of  the  United  States  Army  and 
am  a  plain  American  citizen.  I  don't  understand  that  Con- 
gress can  do  much  about  unmaking  American  citizens." 
Which  all  goes  to  show  that  it  doesn't  do  much  good  to  lose 
one's  temper.  The  gentleman  took  his  party  and  stalked 
out  of  the  plaza. 

My  hopes  for  the  evening  were  blasted.  About  five 
o'clock  the  heavens  opened  and  such  a  sheet  of  water  de- 
scended upon  my  refreshment  tent  and  my  strings  of  gay 
paper  lanterns  as  one  never  sees  in  the  Temperate  Zone.  It 
was  raining  in  torrents  when  our  guests  began  to  arrive,  and 
if  many  of  those  invited  had  not  been  kept  at  home  by  the 
weather  I  don't  know  what  I  should  have  done  with  the 
crowd.  I  had  a  wide  hall,  a  small  reception-room,  a 
dining-room  and  the  verandah,  but  two  thousand  people  are 
a  good  many,  and  I'm  sure  a  large  majority  of  them  came 
in  spite  of  the  weather.  It  was  a  "crush,"  and  a  warm, 

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moist  crush,  but  it  was  a  gala  occasion,  everybody  was  in 
good  humour  and  the  evening  passed  much  more  pleasantly 
than  I  had  any  reason  to  expect.  This  was  the  first  enter- 
tainment of  such  proportions  that  I  had  undertaken  in  Ma- 
nila, and  I  saw  at  once  that,  as  the  Governor's  wife,  I  should 
need  all  the  spaciousness  of  Malacanan  Palace. 

I  think  General  MacArthur  was  pleased  with  our  farewell 
hospitality  to  him;  he  seemed  to  be;  and  I  think  his  feelings 
toward  Mr.  Taf t,  when  he  left  the  Islands  the  next  day,  were 
exceedingly  friendly.  But  we  heard  later  that  letters  had 
come  from  companions  of  his  on  the  ship  which  said  that  he 
very  keenly  resented  the  fact  that  the  new  Governor  had  not 
seen  fit  to  mention  him  with  praise  in  his  Inaugural  address. 
Mr.  Taft  said  he  was  very  sorry,  but,  in  view  of  the  rela- 
tions which  were  known  to  exist  between  the  Military  gov- 
ernment and  the  Commission,  he  thought  it  would  have  been 
very  difficult  to  find  the  tactful  words  which  would  have 
satisfied  the  General,  and  in  uttering  which  he  would  not 
have  stultified  himself. 

I  am  quite  sure  that  General  MacArthur  never  disliked 
my  husband  personally.  His  resentment  was  against  the 
Commissioners  in  their  official  capacity,  whereby  his  own 
authority  was  diminished.  In  later  years,  as  Secretary  of 
War,  Mr.  Taft  met  him  very  often  and  their  relations  were 
always  perfectly  cordial.  After  his  death  there  was  con- 
siderable newspaper  comment  to  the  effect  that  he  had  been 
very  badly  treated.  There  was  no  refutation  of  the  charges, 
but  everybody  familiar  with  the  facts  knew  they  had  no 
foundation.  When  Mr.  Taft  was  Secretary  of  War,  on  his 
recommendation  General  MacArthur  was  given  the  highest 
rank  in  the  United  States  Army,  that  of  Lieutenant-General, 
and  at  his  own  request  was  sent  by  Mr.  Taft  on  a  mission  to 
travel  through  China  with  his  son,  an  Army  officer,  as  his 
aide,  and  to  make  a  military  report  upon  the  country.  On 
his  return,  at  his  own  request,  he  was  not  assigned  to  specific 

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command,  but  was  ordered  to  his  home  at  Milwaukee  to 
prepare  the  report  on  China,  and  there  he  remained  by  his 
own  choice  until  his  retirement. 

On  the  morning  of  July  5,  we  moved  to  Malacanan,  and 
General  Chaffee,  who  succeeded  General  MacArthur,  took 
our  house  on  the  Bay.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  conten- 
tion with  regard  to  this  exchange  of  houses.  Mr.  Taf  t  knew 
that  to  the  mind  of  the  Filipinos  the  office  of  Governor, 
without  the  accustomed  "setting"  and  general  aspects  of  the 
position,  would  lose  a  large  part  of  its  dignity  and  effective- 
ness. He  also  knew  that  a  Civil  Government,  unless  it 
were  quartered  in  the  Ayuntamiento,  the  recognised  seat  of 
government,  would  inspire  but  little  confidence  or  respect. 
The  outward  semblance  is  all-important  to  the  Filipino  mind, 
yet  knowing  this  the  Military  authorities  clung  with  dogged 
tenacity  to  every  visible  evidence  of  supremacy,  and  it  took 
an  order  from  Washington  to  get  them  to  vacate  the  Ayun- 
tamiento in  which  they  had,  in  the  beginning,  refused  the 
Commission  adequate  office  room.  An  official  order  also 
turned  the  Governor's  residence  over  to  the  new  Governor 
and,  at  the  same  time,  relieved  Mr.  Taf  t  of  the  necessity  for 
deciding  what  to  do  with  our  house  in  Malate.  It  was  the 
best  available  house  in  the  city  and  every  man  on  the  Com- 
mission wanted  it,  so  if  the  War  Department  had  not  taken 
it  for  the  Commanding  General  somebody's  feelings  surely 
would  have  suffered.  Mr.  Taf  t  had  about  decided  to  toss  a 
coin  in  the  presence  of  them  all  to  see  which  one  of  his  col- 
leagues should  have  it. 

In  some  ways  we  regretted  that  the  move  was  necessary, 
for  we  were  very  comfortable  in  our  "chalet,"  as  Senor  Juan 
de  Juan  had  editorially  called  it,  and  invigourating  dips  in 
the  high  breakers  of  the  Bay  had  become  one  of  our  pleas- 
antest  pastimes.  But  we  knew  that  no  amount  of  execu- 
tive orders  could  turn  our  homely  and  unpalatial  abode  into 
a  gubernatorial  mansion,  so  we  needs  must  move  for  the  ef- 

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feet  on  the  native  mind,  if  for  nothing  else.  Not  until  we 
did,  would  the  Filipinos  be  convinced  that  Civil  Government 
was  actually  established. 

Not  that  I  wasn't  well  pleased  with  the  idea  of  living  in  a 
palace,  however  unlike  the  popular  conception  of  a  palace 
it  might  be.  I  had  not  been  brought  up  with  any  such  des- 
tiny in  view  and  I  confess  that  it  appealed  to  my  imagina- 
tion. 

Malacanan  is  old  and  rather  damp  and,  in  my  time,  some 
of  it  had  not  been  furnished  or  finished  according  to  modern 
ideas,  but  in  size  and  dignity  it  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired, 
and  it  has  historic  associations  which  give  it  an  atmosphere 
that  I  found  to  be  quite  thrilling.  It  contains  many  fine, 
old-world  Spanish  portraits,  and  there  is  one  large  canvas 
of  especial  interest  which  hangs  at  the  head  of  the  main 
stairway.  It  depicts  the  ceremony  through  which  Magellan 
made  peace  with  the  natives  of  Cebu  when  he  landed  on  that 
island  in  April,  1521.  This  consisted  of  drawing  blood 
from  the  breasts  of  the  principal  parties  to  the  contract,  the 
one  drinking  that  of  the  other.  The  Spaniards  called  it  the 
Pacto  de  Sangre^  or  the  Blood  Pact,  and  so  the  picture  is 
named.  In  our  own  day  the  Katipunan  League,  the 
strongest  and  most  sinister  of  all  the  insurrectionary  secret 
societies,  are  said  to  have  adopted  this  ceremony  in  their 
rites  of  initiation,  and  members  of  the  League  could  be  iden- 
tified by  a  peculiar  scar  on  the  breast. 

The  grounds  at  Malacanan  contain,  perhaps,  twenty  acres, 
and  in  those  days  there  were  fields  and  swamps  in  the  en- 
closure as  well  as  lawns  and  fountains,  flower-beds  and 
kitchen  gardens.  There  were  five  or  six  good-sized  houses 
in  the  grounds  for  the  use  of  secretaries  and  aides,  and  the 
stables  were  very  large. 

I  would  not  care  to  hazard  a  guess  as  to  the  number  of 
parientes  we  sheltered  in  the  quarters  of  our  employes.  Mr. 
Taft  called  these  quarters  our  "Filipino  tenement"  and 

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"Calle  Pariente,"  but  screened  with  shrubbery  and  spread- 
ing down  the  sides  of  a  twenty-acre  lot  the  colony  did  not 
seem  as  conspicuous  as  our  huddled  tribe  had  been  in  Mai- 
ate. 

The  Palace  is  architecturally  Spanish,  yet  it  lacks  the 
large  patio,  having  two  small  courts  instead.  The  lower 
floor,  on  a  level  with  the  ground,  is  really  nothing  more  than 
a  basement  and  has  no  usable  spaces  in  it  except  some  raised 
offices  and  cloak  rooms.  Frequently  during  bad  typhoons 
I  have  seen  water  two  and  three  feet  deep  in  the  entrance 
hall,  but  it  always  receded  very  rapidly  and  seldom  gave 
us  any  inconvenience.  The  entrance,  which  is  paved  with 
marble,  is  very  broad,  and  there  is  a  wide  and  imposing 
staircase  of  polished  hardwood  leading  to  the  reception  hall 
above.  The  great  living-rooms  open  one  into  another,  giv- 
ing a  fine  perspective,  and  they  lead,  through  a  dozen  dif- 
ferent doorways,  on  to  a  splendid,  white-tiled  verandah 
which  runs  out  to  the  bank  of  the  Pasig  River.  There  is  a 
picturesque,  moss-covered  river  landing  on  the  verandah 
below. 

There  are  about  twenty  rooms  on  the  one  floor,  all  of  them 
good  sized  and  some  of  them  enormous,  and  it  took  a  great 
many  servants  to  keep  the  place  in  order.  The  floors  were 
all  of  beautiful  hardwoods  and  it  required  a  permanent  force 
of  six  muchachos  to  keep  them  in  a  proper  state  of  polish. 
The  Filipino  method  of  polishing  floors  is  interesting.  Your 
muchacho  ties  either  banana  leaves  or  some  sort  of  bags  on 
his  bare  feet,  then  he  skates  up  and  down,  up  and  down, 
until  the  floors  get  so  slick  that  he  himself  can  hardly  stand 
up  on  them.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  that  six  boys  skating  to- 
gether in  the  spaciousness  of  the  Palace  might  cut  fancy 
figures  and  have  a  delightful  time  generally,  if  they  thought 
they  were  unobserved.  Filipinos  of  the  muchacho  class  al- 
ways play  like  children,  no  matter  what  they  are  doing,  and 
they  have  to  be  treated  like  children. 

213 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

The  Palace  furniture,  which  must  have  been  very  fine 
in  Spanish  days,  was  of  red  narra^  or  Philippine  mahogany, 
handsomely  carved  and  displaying  on  every  piece  the  Span- 
ish coat-of-arms.  But  during  the  changing  Spanish  regimes 
some  one  with  a  bizarre  taste  had  covered  all  the  beautiful 
wood  with  a  heavy  coat  of  black  paint.  The  effect  was  de- 
pressingly  sombre  to  me. 

The  porcelain,  however,  or  what  was  left  of  it,  was  unusu- 
ally good.  The  Spanish  coat-of-arms  in  beautiful  colours 
was  reproduced  on  each  plate  against  a  background  of  a  dark 
blue  canopy.  I  must  say  there  were  quite  as  many  re- 
minders of  Spanish  authority  as  I  could  wish  for  and  I  fre- 
quently felt  that  some  noble  Don  might  walk  in  at  any 
moment  and  catch  me  living  in  his  house. 

But,  it  didn't  take  us  long  to  get  settled  down  in  our  new 
domain,  and  I  soon  ceased  to  regret  the  sea  breezes  and  the 
salt  baths  of  Malate.  Malacanan  enjoyed  a  clean  sweep  of 
air  from  the  river  and  our  open  verandah  was  in  many  ways 
an  improvement  on  the  gaudily  glazed  one  that  we  had  grad- 
ually become  accustomed  to  in  the  other  house.  The  Malac- 
anan verandah,  being  much  of  it  roofless,  was  of  little  use 
in  the  daytime,  but  on  clear  evenings  it  was  the  most  delight- 
ful spot  I  have  ever  seen.  I  began  to  love  the  tropical 
nights  and  to  feel  that  I  never  before  had  known  what  nights 
can  be  like.  The  stars  were  so  large  and  hung  so  low  that 
they  looked  almost  like  raised  silver  figures  on  a  dark  blue 
field.  And  when  the  moon  shone — but  why  try  to  write 
about  tropical  moonlight?  The  wonderful  sunsets  and 
the  moonlit  nights  have  tied  more  American  hearts  to 
Manila  and  the  Philippines  than  all  the  country's  other 
charms  combined.  And  they  are  both  indescribable. 

When  I  lived  in  Malate  and  could  look  out  across  the 
open,  white-capped  bay  to  far-away  Mt.  Meriveles,  I  some- 
times forgot  I  was  in  the  Tropics.  But  at  Malacanan  when 
we  gazed  down  on  the  low-lapping  Pasig,  glinting  in  the 

214 


TWO  VIEWS  OF  MALACANAN    PALACE.      THE  FIRST  PICTURE  SHOWS 
THE  WIDE,  ROOFLESS  VERANDA  OVER  THE  PASIG  RIVER 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

starlight,  and  across  the  rice  fields  on  the  other  side  where 
swaying  lanterns  twinkled  from  beneath  the  outline  of 
thatched  roofs,  there  was  little  to  remind  us  that  we  were 
Americans  or  that  we  had  ever  felt  any  air  less  soothing  than 
the  soft  breeze  which  rustled  the  bamboo  plumes  along  the 
bank. 

Our  household  was  in  every  way  much  enlarged  on  our 
change  of  residence  and  circumstances.  There  were  eight  or 
nine  muchachos  in  the  house,  two  extra  Chinese  helpers  in 
the  kitchen,  and  the  staff  of  coachmen  and  gardeners  in- 
creased on  even  a  larger  scale.  Our  stable  of  ponies  multi- 
plied to  sixteen,  and  even  then  there  were  too  few  for  our 
various  needs.  It  is  difficult  for  the  dweller  in  the  Tem- 
perate Zone  to  realise  how  small  an  amount  of  work  the 
native  of  the  Tropics,  either  man  or  beast,  is  capable  of. 

We  thought  at  first  that  the  salary  attached  to  the  office 
of  Governor  of  the  Philippines  was  quite  splendid,  but  we 
soon  gave  up  any  idea  we  might  have  had  of  saving  a  little 
of  it  for  a  rainy  day.  Our  rainy  day  was  upon  us.  It 
rained  official  obligations  which  we  had  to  meet.  The  mere 
cost  of  lighting  Malacanan  was  enough  to  keep  a  modest 
family  in  comfort.  I  don't  know  about  conditions  at  the 
Palace  now,  but  I  imagine  they  have  not  changed  much,  and 
I  do  know  that  Manila  is  a  more  expensive  place  in  which 
to  live  than  it  was  in  my  time.  And  yet  there  is  serious  talk 
of  reducing  the  salary  of  the  Governor-General.  It  seems 
a  pity.  This  would  place  the  office  in  a  class  with  Ambas- 
sadorships which  nobody  but  rich  men  can  accept.  The 
present  salary,  with  nice  management  and  a  not  too  am- 
bitious programme,  will  just  about  cover  expenses,  but  I 
feel  sorry  for  the  wife  of  the  Governor  who  must  try  to 
do  what  is  expected  of  her  on  less. 

My  cook,  who  had  been  quite  independent  of  me  at 
Malate,  became  at  Malacanan  wholly  unapproachable.  I 
don't  know  why,  but  so  it  was.  He  occupied  quarters  open- 

215- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

ing  on  one  of  the  courts  below  and  connected  with  the  dining- 
room  by  an  outside  staircase  up  which  I  was  never  able  to 
inveigle  him.  I  had  to  deliver  my  orders  from  the  top  of 
the  stairs  and  when  he  had  listened  to  just  as  much  as  he 
cared  to  hear  he  would  disappear  through  the  kitchen  door, 
and  no  amount  of  calling  would  bring  him  back.  As  the 
kitchen  was  an  ante-chamber  to  a  sort  of  Chinese  catacombs, 
extending  over  a  good  part  of  the  basement,  I  never  ven- 
tured to  follow  him  and  I  had  to  swallow  my  wrath  as  best 
I  could. 

But  he  was  a  jewel  despite  his  eccentricities.  He  could 
produce  the  most  elaborate  and  varied  buffet  suppers  I  ever 
saw  and  I  never  knew  a  cook  who  could  make  such  a  wonder- 
ful variety  of  cakes  and  fruit  tarts  and  cream-puffs.  He 
took  a  real  delight  in  their  construction,  and  for  two  days 
before  a  reception  he  would  spend  all  his  time  filling  every 
pan  in  the  house  with  patisseries  elaborately  iced  in  every 
imaginable  colour. 

I  began  at  once  to  give  an  afternoon  reception  every  week 
and  if  it  hadn't  been  for  my  disagreeable,  but  capable,  old 
Ah  Sing  I  should  have  been  in  a  constant  turmoil  of  en- 
gagements with  caterers  and  confectioners.  As  it  was,  I 
never  had  to  give  an  order,  really.  "Reception  Wednesday, 
Ah  Sing,"  was  all  that  was  necessary,  and  except  for  a 
glance  now  and  then  to  see  that  the  muchachos  were  giving 
the  floors  and  the  furniture  a  little  extra  polish  on  Wednes- 
day morning,  the  only  preparations  I  had  to  make  for  receiv- 
ing two  thousand  people  were  to  put  on  an  embroidered 
muslin  gown  and  compose  myself. 

These  afternoon  receptions  were  public,  our  only  form  of 
invitation  being  an  "At  Home"  notice  in  the  newspapers,  and 
considering  the  unsettled  state  of  Manila  society  in  those 
days,  it  is  really  remarkable  that  we  had  so  few  unwelcome 
guests.  There  were  a  great  many  derelicts  and  generally  dis- 
reputable people,  both  American  and  European,  trying  to 

216 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

better  their  fortunes  or  add  to  the  excitement  in  our  agitated 
community,  but  we  suffered  no  unpleasant  consequences  from 
our  open  hospitality,  though  every  Wednesday  the  Palace 
was  thronged  and  every  Wednesday  many  new  faces  ap- 
peared. Army  and  Navy  people,  civilians  of  every  occupa- 
tion and  many  foreigners — Germans  and  British  mostly — 
came  nearly  always.  I  remember  especially  the  first  instal- 
ment of  American  school  teachers.  They  were,  for  the  most 
part,  a  fine  lot  of  men  and  women  who  had  come  out  with 
high  hopes  and  ideals  and  an  enthusiastic  desire  to  pass  them 
on.  There  were  some  pretty  girls  among  them  and  a  number 
of  very  clever  looking  men.  I  believe  they  used  to  enjoy 
my  parties  as  much  as  anybody  in  Manila.  They  were 
homesick,  no  doubt,  especially  the  girls,  and  I  suppose 
the  sight  of  so  many  friendly  American  faces  cheered  them 
up. 

The  Filipinos  had  to  have  a  little  coaxing  before  they 
began  to  avail  themselves  very  freely  of  our  general  invita- 
tion. But  by  asking  many  of  them  personally  and  persist- 
ently to  "be  sure  and  come  Wednesday"  we  prevailed  on  a 
good  number  to  believe  they  were  really  wanted ;  and  after  a 
little  while  there  began  to  be  as  many  brown  faces  as  white 
among  our  guests. 

Speaking  of  school  teachers  reminds  me  that  it  was  just 
about  this  time  that  our  minds  were  relieved  of  all  anxiety 
with  regard  to  Bob's  and  Helen's  education.  My  husband 
had  wanted  to  send  our  ten-year-old  son  back  across  the 
Pacific  and  the  United  States,  all  by  himself,  to  his  Uncle 
Horace's  school  in  Connecticut,  and  I  had  opposed  the  idea 
with  all  my  might  without  being  able  to  offer  a  satisfactory 
substitute  plan.  But  now  a  school  for  American  children 
was  opened  and  they  were  as  well  taught  as  they  would  have 
been  at  home.  Moreover,  Bob  and  Helen  found  a  large 
number  of  congenial  companions,  and  I  don't  think  I  ever 
saw  a  happier  set  of  boys  and  girls.  They  lived  out  of  doors 

217 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  did  everything  that  children  usually  do,  but  their  most 
conspicuous  performance  was  on  the  Luneta  in  the  evenings, 
where  they  would  race  around  the  drive  on  their  little  ponies, 
six  abreast,  or  play  games  all  over  the  grass  plots  which  were 
then,  and  always  have  been,  maintained  chiefly  for  the  ben- 
efit of  children,  both  brown  and  white. 

My  husband's  change  in  title  and  station  made  very  little 
difference  in  the  character  of  his  duties,  but  it  gave  him 
increased  authority  in  the  performance  of  them.  The  on- 
erous necessity  for  submitting  legislation  to  an  executive 
whose  point  of  view  was  different  from  that  of  the  Commis- 
sion came  to  an  end,  and  he  was  able  to  see  that  such  laws  as 
the  Commission  passed  were  put  in  operation  without  delay. 
Under  General  Chaffee  the  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  Army 
against  the  encroachments  of  civil  government  gave  way, 
slowly  but  surely,  to  an  attitude  of,  at  least,  friendly  tolera- 
tion. It  was  as  if  they  said:  "Well,  let  them  alone;  we 
know  they  are  wrong;  but  they  must  learn  by  experience, 
and,  after  all,  they  mean  well." 

General  Chaffee  and  General  MacArthur  were  two  quite 
different  types  of  men.  General  Chaffee  was  less  precise, 
less  analytical.  General  MacArthur  had  always  been  given 
to  regarding  everything  in  its  "psychological"  aspect  and, 
indeed,  "psychological"  was  a  word  so  frequently  on  his  lips 
that  it  became  widely  popular.  General  Chaffee  was  impet- 
uous; he  was  much  less  formal  than  his  predecessor  both  in 
thought  and  manner,  and  Mr.  Taft  found  co-operation  with 
him  much  less  difficult.  He  made  no  secret  of  his  convic- 
tion, which  was  shared  by  most  of  the  Army,  that  civil  gov- 
ernment was  being  established  prematurely,  but  he  was  not 
unreasonable  about  it. 

He  refused  at  first  to  listen  to  the  proposition  for  the 
establishment  of  a  native  Constabulary.  This  had  been 
the  Commission's  pet  project  ever  since  they  had  been  in 
the  Islands,  and  it  was  a  great  disappointment  to  them  to 

218 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

find  that  the  opposition  which  they  had  encountered  in  the 
former  administration  was  to  be  continued. 

What  they  wanted  was  a  force  of  several  thousand  Fil- 
ipinos, trained  and  commanded  by  American  Army  officers, 
either  from  the  regular  Army  or  from  the  volunteers.  The 
same  thing  had  been  done  with  success  by  the  British  in  India 
and  the  Straits  Settlements,  by  the  Dutch  in  Java  and  by  our 
own  General  Davis  in  Porto  Rico,  and  as  the  insurrectionary 
force  had  dwindled  to  a  few  bands  and  to  scattered  groups 
of  murderers  and  ladrones,  so  acknowledged  by  everybody, 
there  was  no  reason  why  a  native  constabulary  should  not  be 
employed  to  clear  these  out. 

This  plan  was  among  the  first  things  submitted  to  Gen- 
eral Chaff ee,  but  he  was  evidently  not  impressed.  "Pin 
them  down  with  a  bayonet  for  at  least  ten  years"  was  a 
favourite  expression  of  Army  sentiment  which  sometimes 
made  the  Commissioners'  explanations  to  the  natives  rather 
difficult. 

General  Wright,  on  behalf  of  the  Commission,  called  on 
General  Chaffee  and  was  much  surprised  to  learn  that  he 
had  not  even  read  the  Constabulary  bill  which  had  been 
passed  some  time  before  and  held  up  pending  the  hoped  for 
opportunity  to  carry  it  into  effect.  When  General  Wright 
explained  the  purport  of  the  measure  General  Chaffee  said, 

"I  am  opposed  to  the  whole  business.  It  seems  to  me  that 
you  are  trying  to  introduce  something  to  take  the  place  of 
my  Army." 

"Why,  so  we  are,"  said  General  Wright.  "We  are  try- 
ing to  create  a  civil  police  force  to  do  the  police  work  which 
we  understood  the  Army  was  anxious  to  be  relieved  of.  You 
have  announced  your  purpose  to  concentrate  the  Army  in  the 
interest  of  economy,  and  to  let  our  civil  governments  stand 
alone  to  see  what  is  in  them  and  we  consider  it  necessary  to 
have  a  constabulary,  or  some  such  force,  to  take  care  of  the 
lawless  characters  that  are  sure  to  be  in  the  country  after  four 

219 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

years  of  war,  and  especially  in  a  country  where  the  natives 
take  naturally  to  ladronism.  The  Municipal  police  as  now 
organised  are  not  able  to  meet  all  the  requirements  in  this 
regard." 

"There  you  are,"  said  General  Chaffee,  "you  give  your 
whole  case  away." 

"I  have  no  case  to  give  away,"  replied  General  Wright. 
"We  are  trying  to  put  our  provincial  governments  on  a  basis 
where  they  will  require  nothing  but  the  moral  force  of  the 
military  arm,  and  actually  to  preserve  law  and  order 
through  the  civil  arm.  The  people  desire  peace,  but  they 
also  desire  protection  and  we  intend  through  the  civil  gov- 
ernment to  give  it  to  them." 

The  Commissioner  then  suggested  the  names  of  some 
Army  officers  whose  peculiar  tact  in  handling  Filipinos  had 
marked  them  as  the  best  available  men  for  organising  and 
training  native  soldiers,  but  General  Chaffee  was  not  in- 
clined to  detail  them  for  the  work,  so  General  Wright 
returned  to  the  Commission  quite  cast  down  and  communi- 
cated to  his  colleagues  the  feeling  that  they  were  to  have  a 
continuance  of  the  same  difficulties  with  which  they  were 
required  to  contend  under  the  former  administration. 

But  a  peacemaker  came  along  in  the  person  of  General 
Corbin.  He  spent  some  time  with  General  Chaffee  and 
then  came  to  Malacanan  to  visit  us.  He  made  a  hurried, 
but  quite  extensive  trip  through  the  Islands  and  gave  the 
whole  situation  pretty  thorough  inspection.  After  he  left, 
a  change  was  found  to  have  come  over  the  spirit  of  affairs, 
and  it  was  thought  that  he  had  managed  to  make  clear  to 
everybody  concerned  that,  while  there  was  a  military  arm 
and  a  civil  arm  of  the  government  in  the  Philippines,  they 
represented  a  single  American  purpose  and  that  that  purpose 
had  been  expressed  by  the  administration  at  Washington 
when  the  Commission  was  sent  out  to  do  the  work  it  was  then 
engaged  upon. 

220 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

After  that  General  Chaffee  seems  not  only  to  have  been 
amenable  to  reason,  but  to  have  been  imbued  with  a  spirit 
of  cordiality  and  helpfulness  which  was  most  gratifying  to 
the  long-harassed  Commission.  To  facilitate  co-operation, 
a  private  telephone  was  installed  between  the  offices  of  Mr. 
Taft  and  the  Commanding  General,  and  it  seemed  to  me 
that  my  husband  suddenly  lost  some  of  the  lines  of  worry 
which  had  begun  to  appear  in  his  face. 

The  Constabulary,  as  everybody  knows,  was  eventually 
established  and  perhaps  no  finer  body  of  men,  organised  for 
such  a  purpose,  exists.  It  took  a  long  time  to  get  them  en- 
listed, equipped  and  properly  drilled,  but  to-day  they  are  a 
force  which  every  man  and  woman  in  the  Philippines,  of 
whatever  nationality,  colour,  creed  or  occupation,  regards 
with  peculiar  satisfaction.  They  include  corps  enlisted 
from  nearly  every  tribe  in  the  Islands,  not  excepting  the 
Moros  and  the  Igorrotes.  The  Moro  constabulario  is  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  Christian  in  that  he  wears  a  jaunty  red 
fez  with  his  smart  khaki  uniform  instead  of  the  regulation 
cap,  while  the  Igorrote  refuses  trousers  and  contents  himself 
with  the  cap,  the  tight  jacket,  the  cartridge  belt  and  a  bright 
"G-string."  To  the  Ifugao  Igorrote  uniform  is  added  a 
distinguishing  spiral  of  brass  which  the  natty  soldier  wears 
just  below  the  knee.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  anything 
more  extraordinary  than  a  "crack"  company  of  these  mag- 
nificent bare-legged  Ifugaos  going  through  dress-parade  drill 
under  the  sharp  commands  of  an  American  officer.  The 
Constabulary  Band  of  eighty-odd  pieces,  under  the  direction 
of  Captain  Loving,  an  American  negro  from  the  Boston  Con- 
servatory of  Music,  is  well  known  in  America  and  is  gen- 
erally considered  one  of  the  really  great  bands  of  the  world. 
All  its  members  are  Filipinos. 

Press  clippings  and  some  correspondence  which  I  have 
before  me  remind  me  that  even  at  this  period  there  began 
to  manifest  itself  in  the  Taft  family,  and  otherwheres,  a 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

mild  interest  in  the  possibility  that  my  husband  might  be- 
come President  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Taft  himself 
treated  all  such  "far-fetched  speculation"  with  the  derision 
which  he  thought  it  deserved,  but  to  me  it  did  not  seem  at 
all  unreasonable.  We  received  first  a  copy  of  the  Boston 
Herald  containing  two  marked  articles  in  parallel  columns, 
one  of  which,  headed  by  a  picture  of  .Mr.  Taft,  stated  that 
in  Washington  there  had  been  serious  suggestion  of  his  name 
as  a  Presidential  candidate  and  the  other  giving  a  sympa- 
thetic account  of  an  anti-imperialistic  meeting  at  Faneuil 
Hall.  We  thought  the  two  articles  as  "news  items"  hardly 
warranted  juxtaposition,  and  it  seemed  to  us  the  editor  was 
indulging  a  sort  of  sardonic  sense  of  humour  when  he  placed 
them  so.  Not  that  my  husband  was  an  "imperialist,"  but 
that  he  was  generally  so  considered.  Indeed,  he  was  the 
most  active  anti-imperialist  of  them  all.  He  was  doing  the 
work  of  carrying  out  a  thoroughly  anti-imperialistic  policy, 
but  he  recognised  the  difference  between  abandoning  the 
Philippines  to  a  certain  unhappy  fate  and  guiding  them  to 
substantial  independence  founded  on  self-dependence.  It 
took  a  long  time  to  get  the  shouters  from  the  house-tops  to 
accept  this  interpretation  of  our  national  obligation,  but 
there  was  reassurance  in  the  fact  that  where  our  honour  is 
involved  Americanism  can  always  be  trusted  to  rise  above 
purely  partisan  politics. 

Mr.  Taft's  mother,  who  took  an  active  and  very  intelli- 
gent interest  in  her  son's  work  and  who  sent  him  letters  by 
nearly  every  mail  which  were  filled  with  entertaining  and 
accurate  comment  on  Philippine  affairs,  took  the  suggestion 
of  his  being  a  Presidential  possibility  quite  seriously.  And 
she  did  not  at  all  approve  of  it.  Having  seen  a  number  of 
press  notices  about  it  she  sat  down  and  wrote  him  a  long 
letter  in  which  she  discussed  with  measured  arguments  the 
wisdom  of  his  keeping  out  of  politics.  At  that  time  the  idea 
appealed  to  nothing  in  him  except  his  sense  of  humour.  He 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

wrote  to  his  brother  Charles :  "To  me  such  a  discussion  has 
for  its  chief  feature  the  element  of  humour.  The  idea  that 
a  man  who  has  issued  injunctions  against  labour  unions,  al- 
most by  the  bushel,  who  has  sent  at  least  ten  or  a  dozen  vio- 
lent labour  agitators  to  jail,  and  who  is  known  as  one  of  the 
worst  judges  for  the  maintenance  of  government  by  injunc- 
tion, could  ever  be  a  successful  candidate  on  a  Presidential 
ticket,  strikes  me  as  intensely  ludicrous;  and  had  I  the 
slightest  ambition  in  that  direction  I  hope  that  my  good 
sense  would  bid  me  to  suppress  it.  But,  more  than  this,  the 
horrors  of  a  modern  Presidential  campaign  and  the  political 
troubles  of  the  successful  candidate  for  President,  rob  the 
office  of  the  slightest  attraction  for  me.  I  have  but  one 
ambition,  and  if  that  cannot  be  satisfied  I  am  content  to 
return  to  the  practice  of  the  law  with  reasonable  assurance 
that  if  my  health  holds  out  I  can  make  a  living,  and  make 
Nellie  and  the  children  more  comfortable  than  I  could  if  I 
went  to  Washington." 

This  letter  is  dated  August  27,  1901,  and  was  written  on  a 
Spanish  steamer  which  the  Commission  had  taken  from 
Aparri,  on  the  north  coast  of  Luzon,  after  they  finished  the 
last  of  the  long  trips  they  had  to  make  for  the  purpose  of 
organising  civil  government  in  the  provinces. 

It  was  just  after  they  returned  from  this  trip;  just  when 
things  were  at  their  brightest ;  when  everything  seemed  to  be 
developing  so  rapidly  and  our  hopes  were  running  high,  that 
we  were  shaken  by  the  appalling  news  of  the  attack  on  Presi- 
dent McKinley.  We  had  kept  luncheon  waiting  for  Mr. 
Taft  until  it  seemed  useless  to  wait  any  longer  and  we  were 
at  table  when  he  came  in.  He  looked  so  white  and  stunned 
and  helpless  that  I  was  frightened  before  he  could  speak. 
Then  he  said,  "The  President  has  been  shot." 

I  suppose  that  throughout  the  United  States  the  emotions 
of  horror  and  grief  were  beyond  expression,  but  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  to  the  Americans  in  the  Philippines  the 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

shock  came  with  more  overwhelming  force  than  to  any  one 
else.  Mr.  McKinley  was  our  chief  in  a  very  special  sense. 
He  was  the  director  of  our  endeavours  and  the  father  of  our 
destinies.  It  was  he  who  had  sent  the  civil  officials  out 
there  and  it  was  on  the  strength  of  his  never  failing  support 
that  we  had  relied  in  all  our  troubles.  It  might,  indeed, 
have  been  Mr.  Root  in  whose  mind  the  great  schemes  for  the 
development  of  the  islands  and  their  peoples  had  been  con- 
ceived, but  Mr.  Root  exercised  his  authority  through  the 
wise  endorsement  of  the  President  and  it  was  to  the  Presi- 
dent that  we  looked  for  sanction  or  criticism  of  every  move 
that  was  made.  Then,  too,  the  extraordinary  sweetness  of 
his  nature  inspired  in  every  one  with  whom  he  came  in  close 
contact  a  strong  personal  affection,  and  we  had  reason  to 
feel  this  more  than  most  people.  Truly,  it  was  as  if  the 
foundations  of  our  world  had  crumbled  under  us. 

But  he  was  not  dead ;  and  on  the  fact  that  he  was  strong 
and  clean  we  began  to  build  hopes.  Yet  the  hush  which  fell 
upon  the  community  on  the  day  that  he  was  shot  was  not 
broken  until  a  couple  of  days  before  he  died  when  we  re- 
ceived word  that  he  was  recovering.  We  were  so  far  away 
that  we  could  not  believe  anybody  would  send  us  such  a 
cable  unless  it  were  founded  on  a  practical  certainty,  and 
our  "Thank  God !"  was  sufficiently  fervent  to  dispel  all  the 
gloom  that  had  enveloped  us.  Then  came  the  cable  an- 
nouncing his  death.  I  need  not  dwell  on  that. 

Mr.  Taft  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  knew  each  other  very  well. 
They  had  been  in  Washington  together  years  before,  Mr. 
Taft  as  Solicitor  General,  Mr.  Roosevelt  as  Civil  Service 
Commissioner,  and  they  had  corresponded  with  some  fre- 
quency since  we  had  been  in  Manila.  So,  in  so  far  as  the 
work  in  the  Philippines  was  concerned,  my  husband  knew 
where  the  new  President's  sympathies  were  and  he  had  no 
fears  on  that  score.  At  the  same  time  he  was  most  anxious 
to  have  Mr.  Root  continued  as  Secretary  of  War  in  order 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

that  there  might  not  be  any  delay  or  radical  change  in  carry- 
ing out  the  plans  which  had  been  adopted  and  put  in  opera- 
tion under  his  direction.  All  activities  suffered  a  sort  of 
paralysis  from  the  crushing  blow  of  the  President's  assassi- 
nation, but  the  press  of  routine  work  continued.  We  were 
very  much  interested  in  learning  that  a  great  many  Filipinos, 
clever  politicians  as  they  are,  thought  that  after  Mr.  Mc- 
Kinley's  death  Mr.  Bryan  would  become  President,  and 
that,  after  all,  they  would  get  immediate  independence. 

Then  came  the  awful  tragedy  of  Balangiga.  It  hap- 
pened only  a  few  days  after  the  President  died,  while  our 
nerves  were  still  taut,  and  filled  us  all  with  unspeakable 
horror  intensified  by  the  first  actual  fear  we  had  felt  since 
we  had  been  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  Company  "C"  of 
the  Qth  Infantry,  stationed  at  the  town  of  Balangiga  on 
the  island  of  Samar,  was  surprised  at  breakfast,  without 
arms  and  at  a  considerable  distance  from  their  quarters,  and 
fifty  of  them  were  massacred.  About  thirty  fought  their 
way  bare  handed  through  the  mob,  each  man  of  which  had 
a  bolo  or  a  gun,  and  lived  to  tell  the  tale.  It  was  a  disaster 
so  ghastly  in  its  details,  so  undreamed  of  under  the  con- 
ditions of  almost  universal  peace  which  had  been  estab- 
lished, that  it  created  absolute  panic.  Men  began  to  go 
about  their  everyday  occupations  in  Manila  carrying  pistols 
conspicuously  displayed,  and  half  the  people  one  met  could 
talk  of  nothing  else  but  their  conviction  that  the  whole 
archipelago  was  a  smouldering  volcano  and  that  we  were  all 
liable  to  be  murdered  in  our  beds  any  night.  Of  course  this 
made  the  Army  officers  more  certain  than  ever  that  the 
Islands  should  have  remained  under  military  control  indefi- 
nitely, and  I  cannot  deny  that,  at  the  time,  their  arguments 
seemed  to  have  some  foundation.  It  was  a  frightful  nerv- 
ous strain  and  it  took  several  months  of  tranquillity  to  restore 
confidence.  If  it  had  been  a  regular  engagement  in  which 
the  Americans  had  sustained  a  reverse  it  could  have  been 

225 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  .YEARS 

accepted  with  some  philosophy,  but  it  was  a  plain  massacre 
of  a  company  of  defenceless  men  by  many  times  their  num- 
ber who  had  gotten  into  the  town  with  the  consent  of  the 
American  authorities,  and  in  conspiracy  with  the  local  head- 
man and  the  native  parish  priest,  on  the  pretext  of  bringing 
in  for  surrender  a  band  of  insurrectos. 

The  man,  Lucban,  who  was  in  command  of  the  Samar 
ladrones  who  committed  this  atrocity,  is  now  a  prominent 
politico  in  Manila,  and  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  only  last 
year,  in  a  campaign  speech,  he  referred  with  dramatic  inten- 
sity to  "our  glorious  victory  of  Balangiga."  He  was  ap- 
pealing to  an  ignorant  electorate,  many  of  whom,  as  he 
knew,  wore  the  scar  of  the  awful  Katipunan  "blood  pact," 
but  it  is  just  to  record  that  the  average  Filipino  is  not  proud 
of  the  Balangiga  "victory." 

Shortly  before  these  unhappy  events  my  sister  Maria  was 
called  back  to  America  by  the  illness  of  our  mother,  and  I 
was  left  to  face  the  tragic  excitements  of  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember without  her  comforting  companionship.  By  October 
I  began  to  feel  that  I  would  have  to  get  out  of  the  Philippine 
Islands  or  suffer  a  nervous  breakdown,  so  my  husband  and  I 
agreed  that  it  would  be  well  for  me  to  "run  up  to  China,"  as 
they  express  it  out  there.  Running  up  to  China  at  that  time 
of  year  meant  getting  out  of  tropic  heat  into  bracing  autumn 
weather  with  a  nip  of  real  winter  in  it,  and  there  was  noth- 
ing that  I  needed  more. 

Mrs.  Wright  and  Mrs.  Moses  were  both  anxious  to  see 
something  of  China  before  leaving  the  Orient,  and  as  this 
seemed  an  excellent  opportunity  to  make  the  trip,  they  de- 
cided to  go  with  me.  The  Boxer  Insurrection  had  just  been 
suppressed  and  the  Dowager  Empress  had  not  yet  returned 
from  the  West,  whither  she  had  fled  during  the  siege  of 
Peking.  We  were  used  to  the  alarums  of  war  and  we 
thought  we  were  likely  to  see  more  of  China  "from  the  in- 

226 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

side"  than  if  we  visited  the  country  during  a  period  of  com- 
plete calm.  Then  there  were  wonderful  tales  of  valuable 
"loot"  which  interested  us.  Not  necessarily  illegitimate 
loot,  but  curios  and  art  treasures  in  the  hands  of  Chinese 
themselves  who  were  selling  things  at  ridiculously  low 
figures  and,  sometimes,  with  a  fascinating  air  of  great  mys- 
tery. There  is  some  allurement  in  the  idea  of  bargaining 
for  priceless  porcelains,  ivories,  silks  and  Russian  sables 
behind  closed  and  double-locked  doors,  in  the  dark  depths  of 
some  wretched  Chinese  hovel.  Our  Army  officers  who  had 
helped  to  relieve  Peking  brought  us  stories  of  this  kind  of 
adventure,  and  I  secretly  hoped  that  we  should  be  able  to 
have  just  some  such  experience.  But  being  the  wives  of 
American  officials  I  thought  likely  we  should  be  "taken  care 
of"  every  hour  of  every  twenty-four.  And  so  we  were. 

We  sailed  to  Shanghai  and  went  from  there  straight  to 
Peking,  where  we  became  the  guests  of  Colonel  and  Mrs. 
Robertson,  who  had  gone  in  with  the  American  troops  in  the 
Allied  Armies  and  were  quartered  in  no  less  a  place  than  the 
Temple  of  Heaven.  The  casual  tourist  looking  now  upon 
that  glorious  collection  of  ancestral  shrines  would  find  it 
difficult  to  believe  that  they  once  served  as  barracks  for 
American  soldiers.  Most  people  who  visit  the  Temple  of 
Heaven  find  in  it  an  atmosphere  of  peace  and  serenity  such 
as  is  achieved  by  few  structures  in  the  world,  and  to  have 
this  deep  calm  invaded  by  business-like  "foreign-devil" 
troops  must  have  ruffled  the  spirits  of  the  high  gods.  But 
the  soldiers  had  to  be  quartered  somewhere  and  this  great, 
clean,  tree-sheltered  enclosure  in  the  heart  of  the  Chinese 
city  offered  ample  space. 

Mr.  Conger  was  then  our  Minister  to  China,  and  after 
spending  a  few  very  busy  days  sightseeing  we  went  to  the 
Legation  to  visit  him.  The  Legation  quarter,  which  had 
been  laid  in  ruins  during  the  Boxer  troubles,  had  not  yet 

227 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

begun  to  assume  an  aspect  of  orderliness,  and  many  were  the 
evidences  of  the  weeks  of  horror  through  which  the  besieged 
foreign  representatives  had  lived. 

As  the  Empress  Dowager  and  her  court  had  not  yet  re- 
turned, we  hoped  to  be  able  to  see  all  the  mysteries  of  the 
Forbidden  City,  but  order  had  been  restored  to  a  point  where 
it  was  possible  to  make  the  palaces  once  more  "forbidden," 
so  we  were  shown  only  enough  to  whet  our  curiosity.  But 
the  wonderful  walls  and  the  temples,  the  long,  unbelievable 
streets  and  the  curious  life  of  the  people  were  sufficient  to 
save  us  from  any  feeling  of  disappointment  in  our  visit. 
At  a  dinner  given  for  us  by  our  Minister  we  met  a  number 
of  men  and  women  who  had  been  through  the  siege,  and  I 
sat  next  to  Sir  Robert  Hart,  of  the  Imperial  Chinese  Cus- 
toms, the  most  interesting  man,  perhaps,  that  the  great  occi- 
dental-oriental co-operation  has  ever  produced. 

When  we  returned  to  Shanghai  on  our  way  down  from 
Peking  I  was  greeted  by  two  cablegrams.  It  just  happened 
that  I  opened  them  in  the  order  of  their  coming  and  the  first 
one  contained  the  information  that  my  husband  was  very  ill 
and  said  that  I  had  better  return  at  once  to  Manila,  while 
the  second  read  that  he  was  much  better  and  that  there  was 
no  cause  for  alarm.  There  was  no  way  of  getting  to  Manila 
for  several  days,  because  there  were  no  boats  going.  So 
I  decided  to  take  a  trip  up  the  Yangtse  River  on 
the  house-boat  belonging  to  the  wife  of  the  American  Con- 
sul. If  I  had  been  doing  this  for  pleasure  instead  of  for 
the  purpose  of  "getting  away  from  myself"  I  should  have 
enjoyed  it  exceedingly,  but  as  it  was  I  have  but  a  vague 
recollection  of  a  very  wide  and  very  muddy  river;  great 
stretches  of  clay  flats,  broken  here  and  there  by  little  clumps 
of  round  mounds  which  I  knew  were  Chinese  graves,  and 
bordered  by  distant,  low  hills;  an  occasional  quaint  grey 
town  with  uptilted  tile  roofs;  and  a  few  graceful  but  dreary- 
looking  pagodas  crowning  lonesome  hill-tops.  And  in  addi- 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

tion  to  all  of  this  there  was  a  seething  mass  of  very  dirty  and 
very  noisy  humanity  which  kept  out  of  our  way  and  regarded 
us  with  anything  but  friendly  looks. 

I  had  left  my  husband  apparently  perfectly  well,  but  I 
subsequently  learned  that  the  night  after  I  left  Manila  he 
developed  the  first  symptoms  of  his  illness.  It  was  diag- 
nosed at  first  as  dengue  fever,  a  disease  quite  common  in  the 
Philippines  which,  though  exceedingly  disagreeable,  is  not 
regarded  as  dangerous.  It  was  about  two  weeks  before  a 
correct  diagnosis  was  made,  and  it  was  then  discovered  that 
he  was  suffering  from  an  abscess  which  called  for  a  serious 
emergency  operation.  He  was  taken  to  the  First  Reserve 
Army  hospital  and  the  operation  was  performed  by  Dr. 
Rhoads,  the  Army  surgeon  who  afterward  became  his  aide 
when  he  was  President. 

The  children  must  have  been  much  frightened.  They 
had  never  seen  their  father  ill  before,  and  he  told  me  after- 
ward that  he  should  never  forget  the  way  they  looked  as  he 
was  being  carried  out  of  Malacanan  on  a  stretcher  borne  by 
six  stalwart  American  policemen.  They  were  all  huddled 
together  in  the  great  hall  as  he  passed  through,  and  while 
Bob  and  Charlie  were  gazing  at  the  proceedings  in  open-eyed 
astonishment,  Helen  was  weeping. 

For  twenty-four  hours  after  the  operation  the  doctors  were 
not  at  all  certain  that  their  patient  would  live,  nor  did 
their  anxiety  end  at  that  time.  The  abscess  was  of  long 
growth,  the  wound  had  to  be  made  a  terrible  one,  and  there 
was  great  danger  of  blood  poisoning.  Mr.  Taft  rallied 
but  a  second  operation  was  necessary.  By  the  time  I 
reached  Manila  he  was  well  on  the  way  to  recovery,  though 
even  then  there  was  no  prospect  of  his  being  able  to  move 
for  many  weeks  to  come. 

He  used  to  lie  on  his  cot  in  the  hospital  and  recite  to  his 
visitors  a  verse  of  Kipling's  which  he  thought  fitted  his  case 

exactly : 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

"Now  it  is  not  well  for  the  white  man 

To  hurry  the  Aryan  brown, 
For  the  white  man  riles  and  the  Aryan  smiles, 

And  it  weareth  the  white  man  down. 
And  the  end  of  the  fight  is  a  tombstone  white 

With  the  name  of  the  late  deceased, 
And  the  epitaph  drear:     'A  fool  lies  here 
Who  tried  to  hurry  the  East/  " 

It  was  decided  at  once  by  everybody,  including  the  doctors, 
Mr.  Root  and  President  Roosevelt,  that  Mr.  Taf t  must  leave 
the  Islands  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  travel,  and  there  were 
several  reasons,  besides  those  connected  with  health,  why  it 
seemed  best  for  us  to  return  to  the  United  States.  The 
principal  one  was  that  Congress  was  becoming  very  active 
with  regard  to  Philippine  matters,  and  as  Mr.  Taft  was 
anxious  that  the  right  kind  of  legislation  should  be  passed, 
he  wished  to  go  to  Washington  and  present  the  facts  about 
the  situation  as  he  had  found  them  during  his  long  hand-to- 
hand  struggle  with  the  problem.  Mr.  Root  cabled  him 
that  his  presence  in  Washington  was  necessary  and  granted 
him  a  three  months'  leave  of  absence  from  his  duties  as 
Governor,  while  General  Wright  was  appointed  vice- 
Go  vernor  to  fill  his  place  for  the  time  being. 

Mr.  Worcester  was  the  ranking  member  of  the  Commis- 
sion, but  my  husband  felt  that  he  had  not  quite  the  same 
talent  for  genially  dealing  with  every  kind  of  person, 
whether  evasive  Filipino  or  dictatorial  Army  officer,  which 
General  Wright  so  conspicuously  displayed,  and,  moreover, 
Mr.  Worcester  was  entirely  engrossed  with  the  problems  of 
his  department,  which  included  health  and  sanitation  and 
the  satisfactory  adjustment  of  the  difficulties  connected  with 
the  government  of  the  non-Christian  tribes.  These  were 
matters  which  appealed  to  Mr.  Worcester's  scientific  mind 
and  which  he  vastly  preferred  to  the  uncongenial  task  of 
administering  the  routine  of  government,  so  he  was  only 

230 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

too  willing  not  to  be  encumbered  with  the  duties  of  Gover- 
nor. This,  I  understand,  was  Mr.  Worcester's  attitude 
throughout  his  thirteen  years  as  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
during  which  time  he  was  always  the  ranking  Commis- 
sioner with  the  first  right,  under  a  promotion  system,  to 
the  Governorship  whenever  a  vacancy  occurred  in  that 
office. 

The  transport  Grant  was  assigned  for  our  use  by  General 
ChafTee,  and  we  made  our  preparations  for  an  extended 
absence. 

One  incident  of  my  husband's  convalescence  in  the  hos- 
pital I  think  I  must  relate.  In  an  adjoining  room  General 
Frederick  Funston  was  recovering  from  an  operation  for 
appendicitis  and  he  was  sufficiently  far  advanced  to  be  able 
to  walk  around,  so  he  used  to  call  on  Mr.  Taft  quite  often. 
Now  General  Funston,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  have 
no  mental  picture  of  him,  is  by  no  means  gigantic.  He  has 
the  bearing  of  a  seven- foot  soldier,  but  the  truth  is  he  is  not 
more  than  five  feet  three  or  four  inches  in  height. 

One  day  there  was  an  earthquake  of  long  duration  and 
extended  vibration  which  would  have  been  sufficient  to 
destroy  Manila  had  it  not  lacked  a  certain  upward  jerk 
calculated  to  unbalance  swaying  walls.  One  gets  used  to 
earthquakes  in  the  Orient  in  a  way,  but  no  amount  of  famil- 
iarity can  make  the  sensation  a  pleasant  one.  .  My  husband 
was  alone  at  the  time  and  he  had  decided  to  hold  hard  to 
his  bed  and  let  the  roof  come  down  on  him  if  it  had  to. 
The  hospital  was  a  one-story  wooden  building  and  he  really 
thought  he  was  as  safe  in  it  as  he  would  be  anywhere. 
Moreover,  he  was  quite  unable  to  walk,  so  his  fortitude  could 
hardly  be  called  voluntary,  but  he  had  scarcely  had  time  to 
steel  himself  for  the  worst  when  his  door  was  thrown  open 
and  in  rushed  General  Funston. 

"We  must  carry  out  the  Governor!"  he  shouted;  "we 
must  carry  out  the  Governor!" 

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"But  how  are  you  going  to  do  that,  General?"  asked  Mr. 
Taft. 

He  knew  quite  well  that  General  Funston,  in  his  weakened 
condition,  would  be  incapable  of  carrying  an  infant  very  far. 

"Oh,  I  have  my  orderly  with  me,"  responded  the  doughty 
General,  and  by  this  time  he  had  begun  to  get  a  firm  grasp 
on  the  mattress  while  behind  him  hurried  a  soldier,  shorter 
even  than  his  chief,  but  with  the  same  look  of  dauntless 
determination  in  his  eye. 

In  spite  of  the  straining  on  the  rafters,  Mr.  Taft  burst 
out  laughing  and  flatly  refused  to  let  them  try  to  move  him. 
Fortunately  for  them  all  the  upward  jerk  necessary  to  bring 
down  the  roof  didn't  occur,  so  there  is  no  way  of  telling 
whether  or  not,  for  once  in  his  life,  General  Funston  started 
something  that  he  couldn't  finish. 

We  sailed  from  Manila  on  Christmas  Eve,  1901,  and, 
much  as  I  had  enjoyed  my  life  and  experiences  in  our  new 
world  of  the  Philippines,  I  was  glad  to  see  the  tropic  shores 
fade  away  and  to  feel  that  we  were  to  have  a  few  months 
in  our  own  land  and  climate,  and  among  our  own  old  friends, 
before  I  sighted  them  again. 


232 


CHAPTER  XI 

A    TRIP    TO    ROME 

THE  winter  of  1902,  the  greater  part  of  which  we  spent  in 
Cincinnati,  is  memorable  only  as  a  period  of  bereavement 
and  protracted  illnesses.  Perhaps  such  a  record  has  no 
place  in  a  narrative  wherein  it  is  my  wish  to  dwell  on  pleas- 
ant memories  only,  or,  at  least,  to  touch  as  lightly  as  possible 
upon  those  incidents  which,  for  one's  peace,  may  better  be 
forgotten,  but  a  whole  winter  filled  with  grief  and  worry 
is  not  so  easily  torn  from  the  leaves  of  the  calendar  rolled 
back. 

In  the  first  place,  when  I  left  Manila  in  December,  1901, 
I  was  very  near  to  a  nervous  breakdown.  This  was  due  to 
the  long  strain  of  a  peculiarly  exacting  official  life  in  a  try- 
ing climate,  and  an  added  weight  of  uneasiness  about  my 
husband's  illness. 

Then,  too,  my  mother  was  very  ill.  She  had  suffered  a 
stroke  of  paralysis  the  year  before  from  which  she  had  never 
rallied  and  I  was  extremely  anxious  to  be  with  her  in  Cin- 
cinnati. 

When  we  arrived  in  San  Francisco  a  terrible  mid-winter 
storm  was  sweeping  the  country  from  one  end  to  the  other 
and  we  were  strongly  advised  to  delay  our  trip  across  the 
continent,  but  we  were  both  eager  to  go  on  so  we  started 
East  at  once  over  the  Union  Pacific. 

When  we  passed  Ogden  we  found  ourselves  in  the  midst 
of  the  worst  blizzard  I  ever  saw.  The  snow  piled  up  ahead 
of  us,  delaying  us  hour  by  hour;  the  bitter  wind  fairly  shook 
the  heavy  train;  and  to  turn  mere  discomfort  into  misery  the 
water  pipes  in  the  cars  froze  solid  and  we  were  left  without 
heat  of  any  kind.  There  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  go  to 
bed;  but  even  so,  with  all  the  blankets  available  piled  on 
top  of  us,  we  shivered  through  interminable  hours  while  the 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

train  creaked  and  puffed  and  struggled  over  the  icy  tracks. 

When  we  reached  Omaha  I  received  a  telegram  telling 
me  that  my  mother  had  died  the  day  before,  and  I  found 
it  no  longer  possible  to  brace  myself  against  the  inevitable 
collapse.  We  hurried  on  to  Cincinnati  and  arrived  in  time 
for  my  mother's  funeral,  but  I  was  too  ill  to  be  present. 
It  was  two  months  before  I  began  to  recover. 

In  the  meantime  Mr.  Taft  left  us  and  went  on  to  Wash- 
ington for  consultation  with  the  President  and  Mr.  Root 
and  to  appear  before  the  Philippine  Committees  of  the 
House  and  Senate  which  were  then  conducting  minute  in- 
quiries into  conditions  in  the  Islands  preparatory  to  passing 
a  much-needed  governmental  bill.  For  a  whole  month  he 
was  subjected  to  a  hostile  cross-examination,  but  he  was 
able  to  place  before  the  Committees  more  first-hand  and 
accurate  information  on  the  subject  of  their  deliberations 
than  they  had  theretofore  received.  This  was  exactly  what 
he  wanted  to  come  to  the  United  States  for,  and  he  would 
greatly  have  enjoyed  it  had  he  been  in  his  usual  form,  but 
he  was  not.  During  his  stay  in  Washington  he  was  the 
guest  of  Secretary  and  Mrs.  Root  and  only  their  friendly 
care  and  solicitude  enabled  him  to  continue  so  long.  In 
March  he  was  compelled  to  return  to  Cincinnati  for  another 
operation,  the  third  in  five  months.  Everything  considered, 
it  seemed  to  me  the  Taft  family  had  fallen  upon  evil  days. 

However,  the  weeks  passed,  I  began  to  improve,  and  as 
soon  as  my  husband  had  fairly  set  his  feet  on  earth  again 
we  began  to  make  plans  for  our  return  to  the  Philippines. 
There  could  be  no  thought  of  abandoning  the  work  in  the 
Islands  just  when  it  was  beginning  to  assume  an  ordered 
and  encouraging  aspect,  nor  was  it  possible  just  then  to 
shift  the  responsibility  to  other  shoulders.  This  would  have 
been  too  much  like  "changing  horses  in  the  middle  of  a 
stream." 

My  husband  was  able  while  he  was  in  Washington  to  pre- 
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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

sent  to  President  Roosevelt  and  Secretary  Root  a  very  clear 
outline  of  Philippine  affairs,  together  with  such  details  as 
could  never  be  conveyed  by  cable,  and  the  inevitable  con- 
clusion reached  was  that  no  solution  of  the  problem  was 
possible  which  did  not  include  the  settlement  of  the  Friar 
controversy.  The  four  monastic  orders,  the  Franciscan,  the 
Dominican,  the  Augustinian  and  the  Recoleto,  which  held 
four  hundred  thousand  acres  of  the  best  agricultural  land  in 
the  Islands,  had  won  the  lasting  enmity  of  the  Filipino  peo- 
ple and  it  was  absolutely  impossible  to  establish  permanent 
peace  while  the  Friars  remained  and  persisted  in  an  attempt 
to  return  to  their  parishes.  Hundreds  of  them  were  living 
in  practical  imprisonment  in  the  monasteries  of  Manila, 
and  that  they  should  not  be  allowed  to  return  to  their 
churches  throughout  the  Islands,  from  which  they  had  been 
driven,  was  the  one  stand  taken  by  the  Filipinos  from  which 
they  could  not  by  any  form  of  persuasion  be  moved. 

The  solution  of  the  difficulty  proposed  by  Mr.  Taft  and 
his  colleagues  in  the  Philippine  government  was  that  the 
United  States  purchase  the  Friars'  lands  and  turn  them  into 
a  public  domain  on  the  condition  that  the  orders  objected  to 
by  the  people  be  withdrawn  from  the  Islands. 

As  soon  as  President  Roosevelt  recognised  the  importance 
of  accomplishing  these  things  he  decided,  with  charac- 
teristic directness,  that  somebody  should  go  at  once  to  Rome 
and  open  negotiations  with  the  Vatican,  and  after  consider- 
ing various  men  for  this  delicate  mission  he  concluded  that 
Mr.  Taft  was  the  man  best  fitted  to  undertake  it. 

The  prospect  of  another  novel  experience  was  exceedingly 
gratifying  to  me  and  I  began  at  once  to  look  forward  with 
interest  to  a  renewal  of  my  acquaintance  with  Rome  and  to 
the  trip  back  to  the  East  by  the  Suez  Canal,  the  Red  Sea  and 
the  Indian  Ocean  which,  according  to  Kipling,  "sits  an' 
smiles,  so  sof ,  so  bright,  so  bloomin'  blue."  So  my  feet 
no  longer  lagged  in  my  preparations  for  a  long  trip  with  my 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

three  children  and  another  extended  residence  in  the  tropics. 

To  assist  Mr.  Taft  in  his  negotiations  with  the  Vatican, 
and  to  make  up  a  dignified  and  formidable  looking  Commis- 
sion, the  President  appointed  Bishop  O'Gorman  of  the  Cath- 
olic diocese  of  South  Dakota,  and  General  James  F.  Smith, 
at  that  time  a  member  of  the  Philippine  judiciary  and  in 
later  years  Philippine  Commissioner  and  Governor-General 
of  the  Islands.  His  rank  of  General  he  attained  as  an  of- 
ficer of  volunteers  in  the  Army  of  Pacification  in  the  Philip- 
pines, but,  a  lawyer  in  the  beginning,  after  he  was  appointed 
to  the  Bench  he  became  known  as  Judge  Smith,  and  Judge 
we  always  called  him.  He  is  an  Irish  Catholic  Democrat 
and  a  man  of  very  sane  views  and  exceptional  ability. 
Major  John  Biddle  Porter  was  made  Secretary-Interpreter 
to  the  Commission,  and  Bishop  Brent,  Episcopal  Bishop  of 
the  Philippines,  on  his  way  to  Manila,  decided  to  go  with 
Mr.  Taft,  wait  for  him  until  he  had  completed  his  business 
at  Rome  and  then  continue  with  him  the  journey  to  the  Phil- 
ippines. This  was  the  beginning  of  a  warm  friendship  be- 
tween Bishop  Brent  and  ourselves,  and  no  one  can  have  lived 
in  the  Philippines  since,  or  have  been  familiar  with  the  affairs 
of  the  Islands,  without  knowing  what  a  blessing  his  work 
and  presence  have  been  to  the  Philippine  people,  and  how 
much  he  has  aided  the  Government  in  its  task. 

We  engaged  passage  on  the  steamship  Trave^  sailing  from 
New  York  to  Gibraltar  about  the  middle  of  May;  the  day 
for  our  departure  was  close  at  hand;  many  good-byes  had 
been  said;  and,  altogether,  the  immediate  future  was  looking 
bright,  when  suddenly  I  found  myself  once  more  within  the 
orbit  of  my  unlucky  star.  My  son  Robert  chose  this  op- 
portune moment  to  develop  a  case  of  scarlet  fever.  Of 
course  that  left  me  and  the  children  out  of  all  the  plans  and 
I  was  compelled  to  accept  a  hastily  made  arrangement  which 
provided  for  my  remaining  behind  and  following  my  hus- 
band and  his  interesting  party  on  a  later  ship.  Fortunately 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Robert  was  not  with  the  other  children  when  he  contracted 
the  disease.  He  was  visiting  friends  in  another  part  of  town 
and  I  had  him  removed  immediately  to  the  Good  Samaritan 
Hospital,  then  settled  down  to  my  vigil  which  might  be  long 
or  short  as  fortune  decreed. 

My  husband's  mother  was  in  Millbury  while  all  these 
things  were  transpiring  and  he  called  her  up  on  the  long  dis- 
tance telephone  to  tell  her  about  Bobby's  illness  and  to  say 
good-bye. 

"Then  Nellie  cannot  go  with  you?"  said  Mrs.  Taft. 

"No,  I'm  sorry  to  say  she  can't,"  said  my  husband. 

"But  you  have  now  an  extra  stateroom,  have  you  not?" 

"Yes,  Mother." 

"Well,  Will,  I  don't  think  you  ought  to  make  such  a  trip 
alone  when  you  are  so  far  from  strong,  so  I  just  think  I'll  go 
with  you  in  Nellie's  place,"  said  my  mother-in-law. 

And  she  did.  The  intrepid  old  lady  of  seventy-four 
packed  her  trunks  and  was  in  New  York  ready  to  sail  within 
twenty-four  hours,  and  my  husband  wrote  that  she  acted 
altogether  with  an  energy  and  an  enterprise  which  filled  him 
with  pleasure  and  pride.  On  the  steamer,  and  later  at  the 
hotel  Quirinal  in  Rome,  she  presided  with  dignity  for  more 
than  a  month  over  a  table  at  which  daily  gathered  a  com- 
pany composed  of  a  Colonial  Governor,  a  Supreme  Judge, 
a  Roman  Bishop,  an  Anglican  Bishop  and  a  United  States 
Army  officer. 

Her  activity  and  fearlessness  kept  her  family  and  friends 
in  a  state  of  astonishment  a  good  part  of  the  time.  She 
went  wherever  she  liked  and  it  never  seemed  to  occur  to  her 
that  it  was  unusual  for  a  woman  of  her  age  to  travel  every- 
where with  so  much  self-reliance.  She  thought  nothing  of 
crossing  the  American  continent  every  year  to  visit  her 
daughter  or  sister  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  out  in  Manila 
we  used  to  laugh  at  the  possibility  of  her  appearing  on  the 
scene  at  any  moment.  In  fact,  she  very  seriously  considered 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

coming  at  one  time.  I  was  glad  that  she  could  go  with 
my  husband  to  Rome  because  she  really  could  be  a  comfort 
and  a  help  and  not  at  all  a  responsibility. 

Robert  was  not  nearly  as  ill  as  we  expected  he  would  be 
and  in  a  few  weeks  I  was  able  to  make  definite  plans  for 
joining  my  husband.  My  sister,  Mrs.  Anderson,  was  going 
to  Paris  so  I  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  enjoy  her 
companionship  on  the  voyage  and  sailed  with  her  on  the 
fourth  of  June,  landing  in  France  and  going  by  train  to 
Rome. 

That  the  record  of  our  ill-luck  may  be  quite  complete  I 
must  add  that  on  the  way  across  the  Atlantic  my  son  Charlie 
managed  to  pick  up  whooping-cough,  and  that  by  the  time 
we  reached  Rome  he  had  passed  it  on  to  Helen.  Her 
first  remark  to  her  father  was  a  plaintive  query:  "Papa, 
why  is  it  we  can  never  go  anywhere  without  catching  some- 
thing?' 

I  devoutly  hoped  that  we  had  caught  everything  there 
was  to  catch  and  that  we  might  now  venture  to  predict  a 
period  of  peace. 

I  found  my  party  very  comfortably  bestowed.  They  were 
occupying  a  whole  floor  at  the  Quirinal,  the  largest  hotel  then 
open  in  the  city,  and  were  keeping  what  appeared  to  me  to 
be  considerable  "state."  It  looked  as  if  they  had  the  en- 
tire building  to  themselves,  but  that  was  because  it  was 
midsummer  when  few  tourists  visit  Rome  and  when  all 
Roman  society  is  supposed  to  flock  to  its  mountain  homes 
and  to  northern  resorts.  However,  midsummer  though  it 
was,  a  good  many  members  of  the  "Black,"  or  Vatican  di- 
vision of  society,  still  lingered  in  the  city  and  I  found  them 
evincing  every  desire  to  make  our  stay  both  pleasant  and 
memorable.  Before  I  arrived  Mr.  Taft  had  already  "met, 
called  upon,  taken  tea  with  and  dined  with  Cardinals, 
Princes,  counts,  marquises,  and  distinguished  Englishmen 
and  Americans  resident  in  Rome,"  to  quote  from  one  of  his 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

own  letters,  but  he  had  a  good  many  things  to  do  over 
again  in  my  honour.  He  had  also  had  an  audience  with 
Pope  Leo  XIII,  and  was  deep  in  the  rather  distracting  un- 
certainties and  intricacies  of  his  negotiations. 

He  did  not  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  King  of  Italy 
whom  he  had  a  great  desire  to  meet,  because,  even  though  the 
American  Ambassador  had  made  all  the  arrangements,  eti- 
quette did  not  permit  such  an  audience  until  his  relations 
with  the  Vatican  had  terminated,  and  by  that  time  the  King 
had  gone  to  the  military  manoeuvres  in  North  Italy. 

My  husband's  position  was  one  of  very  great  delicacy. 
By  the  nature  of  our  national  institutions  it  is  not  possible 
for  us  to  send  a  representative  to  the  Vatican  in  a  diplo- 
matic capacity  no  matter  what  the  emergency  may  be,  and 
Mr.  Roosevelt  in  sending  this  Commission  to  Rome  had  no 
intention  that  its  office  should  be  construed  into  a  formal  rec- 
ognition of  the  Vatican,  which  could  not  fail  to  raise  a  storm 
of  protest  and  opposition  in  this  country.  So  the  instructions 
given  to  Mr.  Taft  by  Secretary  Root  were  made  very  defi- 
nite on  this  point.  After  reviewing  the  necessity  for  taking 
such  action  on  the  part  of  our  government  and  covering  the 
favourable  reports  on  the  proposed  negotiations  submitted 
by  the  Philippine  Committees  of  the  House  and  Senate,  the 
instructions  began  with  paragraph  one : 

One  of  the  controlling  principles  of  our  government  is  the  com- 
plete separation  of  church  and  state,  with  the  entire  freedom  of 
each  from  any  control  or  interference  by  the  other.  This  principle 
is  imperative  wherever  American  jurisdiction  extends,  and  no  modi- 
fication or  shading  thereof  can  be  a  subject  of  discussion. 

Following  this  in  numbered  paragraphs,  a  tentative  plan 
for  the  adjustment  of  the  Friar  difficulties  is  outlined  and  the 
instructions  end  with  paragraph  nine : 

Your  errand  will  not  be  in  any  sense  or  degree  diplomatic  in  its 
nature,  but  will  be  purely  a  business  matter  of  negotiation  by  you 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

as  Governor  of  the  Philippines  for  the  purchase  of  property  from 
the  owners  thereof,  and  the  settlement  of  land  titles  in  such  a  man- 
ner as  to  contribute  to  the  best  interests  of  the  people  of  the 
Islands. 

These  instructions  were  easier  to  receive  than  to  carry 
out,  since  from  the  beginning  the  Vatican  made  every  pos- 
sible effort  to  give  the  mission  a  diplomatic  aspect  and  to 
cast  upon  it  the  glamour  of  great  official  solemnity,  and  Mr. 
Taft  had  constantly  to  keep  his  mind  alert  to  the  danger 
of  accidental  acquiescence  in  a  misinterpretation  of  his  posi- 
tion. To  take  a  position  which  would  soothe  the  feelings 
of  American  Catholics  and  yet  not  shock  the  conscience  of 
any  Protestant  was  something  like  being  ground  between 
the  proverbial  millstones.  However,  Cardinal  Rampolla 
very  graciously  met  the  businesslike  ideas  of  the  Commission 
and  arranged  a  private  audience  with  Pope  Leo  at  which  the 
propositions  of  the  Philippine  government  were  to  be  out- 
lined to  him. 

My  husband's  memory  of  this  now  historic  mission  to 
Rome  seems  to  include  little  which  was  not  directly  con- 
nected with  the  business  in  hand,  but  Judge  Smith  displays  a 
more  impressionable  bent.  In  answer  to  ari  inquiry  as  to 
what  he  recalls  of  the  visit  he  wrote  Mr.  Taft  a  most  interest- 
ing letter.  All  his  memoranda  of  the  trip,  including  letters, 
journals  and  souvenirs,  were  destroyed  in  the  San  Francisco 
fire,  but  he  says: 

"After  our  arrival  there  was  a  long  wait  that  arrange- 
ments might  be  made  for  an  audience  with  the  Holy  Father, 
but  finally  the  date  was  fixed  and  the  Commission,  at  high 
noon,  in  evening  dress  and  top  hats,  went  to  the  Vatican  and 
passed  up  the  long  staircase,  lined  with  Swiss  Guards,  which 
leads  to  the  State  apartments.  We  were  received  by  the 
Chamberlain  and  several  other  functionaries  and  were  con- 
ducted from  one  apartment  to  another  until  finally  we  were 
ushered  into  the  presence  of  Leo  XIII,  to  whom  you  made 

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a  statement  of  the  matters  which  were  to  be  made  the  subject 
of  negotiation. 

"This  statement  had  been  previously  translated  into 
French  by  Bishop  O' Gorman  and  Colonel  Porter,  and  you 
will  remember  there  were  some  things  about  Bishop  O'Gor- 
man's  French  which  did  not  meet  with  the  entire  approval 
of  Colonel  Porter.  Whether  you  arbitrated  the  matter  and 
selected  the  appropriate  phrase  which  should  have  been  used 
I  do  not  know,  but  I  do  know  that  at  one  time  there  was 
danger  of  the  severance  of  the  friendly  relations  which  had 
theretofore  prevailed  between  the  good  Bishop  and  the  good 
old  Colonel. 

"My  recollection  of  the  Holy  Father  is  that  his  face  was 
like  transparent  parchment,  that  he  had  the  brilliant  eyes 
of  a  young  man  and  that  he  was  wonderfully  alert  of  mind, 
although  bent  over  by  the  weight  of  years. 

"Of  course,  none  of  us  could  forget  Cardinal  Rampolla, 
— tall,  slender,  straight,  vigorous  in  both  mind  and  body, 
impenetrable,  and  cold  as  fate.  A  man  evidently  of  wonder- 
ful intellect  and  fully  equal  to  any  demands  that  might  be 
put  upon  him  as  the  diplomat  of  the  Vatican." 

I  might  add  that  the  first  part  of  my  husband's  speech, 
a  copy  of  which  I  have,  consisted  of  a  few  remarks  appro- 
priate to  the  presentation  of  a  gift  from  President  Roosevelt 
to  the  Pope.  This  gift  was  a  specially  bound  set  of  Mr. 

[Roosevelt's  own  works. 
When  the  formal  interview  was  at  an  end  the  Pope  came 
down  from  the  dais  on  which  he  sat  and  indulged  in  a  fifteen 
or  twenty  minute  personal  conversation  with  the  members  of 
the  Commission.  "He  asked  for  the  pleasure  of  shaking  my 
hand,"  writes  my  husband  to  his  brother  Charles,  in  the 
usual  vein  of  humour  which  obtains  between  them,  adding, 
"a  privilege  which  I  very  graciously  accorded  him."  He 
also  joked  about  Mr.  Taft's  proportions,  saying  that  he  had 
understood  he  had  been  very  ill,  but  from  observation  he  saw 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  illness  had  been  serious.  He 
poked  gentle  fun  at  Bishop  O'Gorman  and  made  kindly  in- 
quiries of  Judge  Smith  and  Major  Porter;  then  he  walked 
with  the  party  to  the  door  and  bowed  them  out,  a  courtesy 
which  I  believe  was  unprecedented. 

"He  had  a  great  deal  more  vigour  of  motion,"  writes  Mr. 
Taft,  "and  a  great  deal  more  resonance  of  voice  than  I  had 
been  led  to  suppose.  I  had  thought  him  little  more  than  a 
lay  figure,  but  he  was  full  of  lively  interest  and  gesture,  and 
when  my  address  was  being  read  he  smiled  and  bowed  his 
head  in  acquiescence." 

"We  visited  the  catacombs,"  says  Judge  Smith,  "St. 
Peter's,  St.  Paul's  beyond  the  walls,  and  a  few  of  the  basil- 
icas of  ancient  Rome  now  dedicated  to  Christian  worship. 
The  Borghese  and  various  other  art  galleries  left  their  im- 
pression, as  did  some  of  the  interesting  old  palaces,  notably 
the  one  which  was  then  threatening  to  fall  into  the  Tiber, 
and  the  ceiling  of  which  bears  the  famous  fresco  of  Cupid 
and  Psyche. 

"One  day  during  our  first  wait  we  had  dinner  out  at  the 
American  College  as  guests  of  Monsignor  Kennedy,  where 
you  (Mr.  Taft)  made  a  speech  which  brought  much  applause 
from  the  students  in  red  cassocks,  and  everybody  was  happy. 
After  dinner  some  of  us  made  a  visit  to  a  villa  by  the  Orsini 
on  the  hills  overlooking  the  Campagna,  which  villa  had 
recently  been  purchased  by  the  college  as  a  summer  home. 

"You  will  remember  our  call  on  Cardinal  Martinelli  and 
the  dinner  we  had  with  good  old  Cardinal  Satolli  who  took 
such  a  pride  in  the  wine  produced  by  his  own  vineyards,  a 
wine,  by  the  way,  which  was  not  unreservedly  approved  by 
the  owners  of  other  vineyards.  One  of  the  most  delightful 
experiences  of  all  was  our  dinner  with  the  good  Episcopal 
Rector,  Dr.  Nevin,  when  ox-tongue  done  in  the  Russian 
style  was  served  as  the  piece  de  resistance.  You  cannot  f  or- 

242 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

get  how  shocked  were  some  of  the  circles  in  Rome  to  find 
Bishop  O'Gorman  and  myself  at  such  a  festal  board  under 
such  circumstances,  and  how  Pope  Leo  showed  his  thorough 
understanding  of  American  institutions  by  saying  that  Amer- 
ican Catholics  might  very  properly  do  things  which  would 
be  very  much  misunderstood  if  done  by  Romans.  The 
Episcopal  Rector  was  a  mighty  hunter,  a  great  traveller,  and 
gifted  with  a  fund  of  anecdote  which  made  him  a  most  de- 
lightful host." 

I  found  this  highly  social  and  sociable  party  rather  im- 
patiently awaiting  a  reply  to  their  formal,  written  proposals 
to  the  Vatican  which  had  been  turned  over  to  a  Commis- 
sion of  Cardinals.  They  were  giving  a  fine  imitation  of 
outward  leisurely  poise,  but  among  themselves  they  were 
expressing  very  definite  opinions  of  the  seemingly  deliberate 
delays  to  which  they  were  being  subjected.  Mr.  Taft  was 
anxious  to  sail  for  Manila  on  the  loth  of  July,  and  already 
had  his  passage  booked  on  the  Koenig  Albert,  but  the  im- 
mediate prospect  seemed  to  be  that  he  would  be  held  in  Rome 
for  the  rest  of  the  summer. 

He  did  not  have  the  greatest  confidence  that  he  would 
succeed  in  the  mission  which  meant  so  much  to  his  future 
course  in  the  Islands,  and,  indeed,  it  was  quite  evident  that 
he  would  not  succeed  without  prolonged  effort  to  be  con- 
tinued after  he  left  Rome.  The  various  Cardinals  lost  no 
opportunity  to  assure  him  that  the  Vatican  was  in  full  sym- 
pathy with  the  proposals  made  and  that  he  might  expect 
a  very  early  and  satisfactory  termination  of  the  business, 
but  he  decided  not  to  believe  anything  until  he  should  see 
the  signatures  to  the  contract.  The  factions  and  the  poli- 
tics of  the  Vatican  were  most  perplexing.  The  monastic 
orders  were  the  conservative  element  in  the  negotiations, 
being  willing  enough  to  sell  the  Friars'  lands  at  a  valuation 
to  be  decided  upon  by  a  board  of  five  members,  two  repre- 
senting the  church,  two  representing  the  United  States  gov- 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

\ 

eminent  and  the  fifth  to  be  selected  from  some  other  coun- 
try, but  they  were  not  willing  to  consent  to  the  withdrawal 
of  the  Friars  from  the  Philippine  Islands.  Then  there  were 
wheels  within  wheels;  Papal  candidates  and  candidates  for 
Cardinals  who  thrust  into  the  negotiations  considerations 
for  agreeing  or  not  agreeing  which  greatly  puzzled  the 
purely  business-like  representatives  of  the  American  govern- 
ment. 

But  I  was  not  particularly  annoyed  by  the  delay.  I 
found  much  to  interest  me  in  Rome,  and  I  saw  my  husband 
improving  in  general  health  and  gaining  the  strength  he 
needed  for  a  re-encounter  with  the  difficulties  in  tropic 
Manila.  Prominent  Republican  leaders  had  aroused  his 
impatience  at  different  times  by  publicly  announcing  that, 
in  all  probability,  he  was  "going  out  to  the  Philippines  to 
die."  He  wrote  to  his  brother  from  Rome : 

"I  dislike  being  put  in  such  an  absurd  position  before  the 
country  as  that  of  playing  the  martyr.  I'm  not  asking  any 
favours  on  account  of  health  or  any  other  cause,  nor  am  I 
taking  the  position  that  I  am  making  any  sacrifice.  I  think 
that  a  great  and  unusual  opportunity  has  been  offered  me 
and  if  I  can  improve  it,  all  well  and  good,  but  I  don't  want 
any  sympathy  or  emotional  support." 

He  was  easily  aroused  to  resentment  oij  the  subject,  but, 
just  the  same,  it  was  gratifying  to  observe  him  quite  rapidly 
regaining  his  normal  vigour  and  buoyancy. 

My  mother-in-law  was  having  a  most  wonderful  time. 
She  was  comfortably  established  at  the  Quirinal  in  rooms 
next  to  ours,  and  was  enjoying  the  devoted  attention  of 
every  man  in  the  party  whether  he  wore  ecclesiastical  frock, 
military  uniform  or  plain  citizens'  clothes.  She  went  every- 
where and  saw  everything  and  was  as  indefatigable  in  her 
enjoyment  as  any  of  us.  She  met  old-time  friends  whom 
she  had  known  when  she  and  Judge  Taft  were  in  the 
diplomatic  corps  abroad,  and  with  them  she  indulged  in 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

pleasant  reminiscence.  After  I  arrived  she  became  more 
energetic  than  ever  and  led  me  a  lively  pace  at  sightseeing 
and  shopping,  because,  as  she  wrote  to  another  daughter-in- 
law,  Mrs.  Horace  Taft,  "Nellie  is  not  at  all  timid  and  as  she 
speaks  French  we  can  go  anywhere." 

I  soon  found  that  in  spite  of  official  and  personal  protest  to 
the  contrary  we  were  considered  quite  important  personages, 
and  the  elaborate  hospitality  we  were  offered  kept  us  busy 
at  nearly  all  hours  when  hospitality  is  at  all  in  order. 
There  were  teas  and  luncheons,  dinners  and  receptions,  and 
functions  of  every  description,  and  we  met  a  great  many 
renowned  and  interesting  people,  both  Roman  and  foreign. 
Mr.  W.  T.  Stead,  the  correspondent  for  the  London 
Times  who  was  lost  on  the  Titanic,  was  one  of  them. 
Then  there  was  Mr.  Laffan,  proprietor  of  the  New  York 
Sun,  and  Mrs.  Laffan,  and  Dr.  Hillis  of  Brooklyn  who  was 
in  Rome  with  his  son.  An  attractive  personality,  who  in- 
terested us  very  much  and  whose  hospitality  we  enjoyed, 
was  Princess  Rospigliosi,  the  wife  of  an  Italian  nobleman, 
who  lived  in  an  enchanting  house.  She  had  a  very  beautiful 
daughter  who  was  at  that  time  keenly  interested  in  the  con- 
troversy as  to  whether  or  not  Catholics  should  vote  in  Rome. 
She  was  strongly  in  favour  of  their  doing  so  and,  with  ex- 
traordinary directness,  carried  her  advocacy  straight  to  the 
Pope  and  insisted  that  it  was  a  great  mistake  for  Cath- 
olics not  to  take  advantage  of  the  ballot  and  by  that  means 
secure  the  political  rights  to  which  they  were  entitled. 
Pope  Leo,  although  very  much  impressed  by  what  she  said, 
insisted  that  it  was  not  yet  time  to  urge  the  reform  suggested, 
and  wound  up  by  saying,  "My  good  daughter,  you  go  al- 
together too  fast  for  me !"  I  don't  doubt  that  by  this  time 
the  young  Princess  is  a  warm  supporter  of  woman's  suffrage. 

Also,  we  were  entertained  by  a  Mr.  McNutt  who  had  been 
in  our  diplomatic  corps  at  one  time  in  Madrid  and  Con- 
stantinople, at  another  time  had  been  tutor  to  the  sons  of  the 

245 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Khedive  of  Egypt,  and  was  then  one  of  the  Papal  Chamber- 
lains. He  had  married  a  woman  of  wealth,  a  Miss  Ogden 
of  New  York. 

Mr.  McNutt  had  one  of  the  most  elaborate  and  beau- 
tiful palaces  I  ever  saw.  He  had  studied  the  customs  of 
Roman  society  in  the  picturesque  days  of  the  Medicis  and  the 
Borgias,  had  rented  the  Pamphili  Palace  and  restored  it  to 
its  pristine  glory,  and  it  was  here  that  he  entertained  us  at 
a  dinner,  with  cards  afterward. 

I  felt  like  an  actor  in  a  mediaeval  pageant  whose  costume 
had  not  been  delivered  in  time  for  the  performance.  Cardi- 
nals in  their  gorgeous  robes,  with  gold  snuff-boxes,  gave  to 
the  scene  a  high  colour  among  the  soberer  tones  of  Bishops 
and  Archbishops  and  uniformed  Ambassadors.  Then  there 
were  Princes  and  Princesses  and  other  nobilities  of  Roman 
society,  the  men  displaying  gay  ribands  and  decorations, 
the  women  in  elaborate  costumes,  and  all  in  a  "stage  setting" 
as  far  removed  from  modernity  as  a  magnificent  old-world 
palace  could  be.  To  make  this  reproduction  of  old  customs 
complete  our  host  made  a  point  of  having  liveried  attend- 
ants with  flaming  torches  to  light  the  Cardinals  to  and  from 
their  carriages. 

Before  I  reached  Rome,  Mr.  Taft  and  his  associates  had 
been  present  at  a  Papal  consistory  at  which  the  Pope  pre- 
sided over  the  College  of  Cardinals.  They  were  the  guests 
of  the  Pope  and  occupied  the  Diplomatic  Box.  I  was  sorry 
to  miss  this  exceptional  privilege,  but  we  were  given  ample 
opportunities  for  seeing  and  hearing  several  noteworthy 
religious  festivals  both  at  St.  Peter's  and  the  church  of  St. 
John  of  Lateran.  I  was  educated  in  the  strictest  Presby- 
terianism,  while  my  husband's  mother  was  a  Unitarian,  and 
Puritan  in  her  training  and  in  all  her  instincts.  We  could 
not  help  feeling  that  we  had  been  led  into  a  prominent 
position  in  a  strange  environment.  But,  unshaken  though  we 
were  in  our  religious  affiliations,  we  appreciated  the  real 

246 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

beauty  of  the  ceremonies  and  knew  that  we  should  rejoice 
in  the  unusual  privilege  accorded  us  which  would  never  be 
ours  again. 

It  was  near  the  end  of  our  stay  in  Rome  that  we  had  our 
audience  with  the  Pope, — Mrs.  Taft,  Robert,  Helen  and  I. 
I  wore  a  black  afternoon  gown  with  a  black  veil  on  my  head, 
while  Mrs.  Taft  wore  her  widow's  veil  as  usual.  Helen,  I 
dressed  in  white  and,  to  her  very  great  excitement,  she  wore 
a  white  lace  veil.  Bishop  O' Gorman  accompanied  us  and 
when  we  reached  the  door  of  the  Vatican  under  the  colon- 
nade at  the  right  of  St.  Peter's,  we  were  met  by  some  mem- 
bers of  the  Swiss  Guard  in  their  curious  uniforms,  conducted 
through  endless  corridors  and  rich  apartments  until  we  came 
to  a  small  waiting-room  where  we  were  left  for  a  few  mo- 
ments by  ourselves.  We  had  only  time  to  adjust  our  veils 
and  compose  ourselves  when  the  door  on  one  side  opened 
and  we  were  ceremoniously  ushered  into  the  presence  of  Leo 
XIII  who  sat  on  a  low  chair  under  a  simple  canopy  at  the 
far  end  of  the  room.  He  rose  to  greet  us  as  we  entered, 
and  as  we  were  presented  one  by  one  he  extended  his  hand 
over  which  we  each  bowed  as  we  received  his  blessing. 

He  began  speaking  to  me  in  French  and  finding  that  I 
could  answer  him  in  that  language  he  talked  with  me  for  per- 
haps half  an  hour  with  a  most  charmingly  graceful  manner  of 
comment  and  compliment.  He  spoke  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
present  and  wished  that  he  knew  English  so  that  he  might 
read  the  books.  He  referred  to  Mr.  Roosevelt  as  "President 
Roomvine"  which  was  as  near  as  he  seemed  to  be  able  to  get 
to  that  very  un-Latin  name;  said  that  he  himself,  in  his 
youth,  had  been  devoted  to  the  chase  and  would  like  very 
much  to  read  "The  Strenuous  Life." 

Later  he  called  Robert  to  his  side  and  gave  him  a  special 
blessing,  saying  that  he  hoped  the  little  boy  would  follow 
in  the  footsteps  of  McKinley  and  Roosevelt.  He  asked 
Bob  what  he  expected  to  be  when  he  grew  up  and  my  self- 

247 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

confident  son  replied  that  he  intended  to  be  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  I  suppose  he  had  heard  the  Chief 
Justiceship  talked  about  by  his  father  until  he  thought  it  the 
only  worthy  ambition  for  a  self-respecting  citizen  to  enter- 
tain. 

When  we  arose  to  go,  His  Holiness  escorted  us  to  the  door 
and  bowed  us  out  with  a  kindly  smile  in  his  fine  young  eyes 
that  I  shall  never  forget. 

Shortly  after  this  I  left  Rome.  It  was  getting  hot  and 
my  husband  persuaded  me  to  take  the  children  away,  prom- 
ising to  join  us  for  a  short  breath  of  mountain  air  before  he 
sailed  for  Manila.  It  had  been  decided  that  I  should  remain 
in  Europe  for  a  month  or  so  and  I  was  to  choose  the  place 
best  suited  for  recuperation.  I  went  first  to  Florence  for  a 
week,  then  to  the  Grande  Albergo  Castello  de  Aquabella  at 
Vallombrosa.  The  sonorous  name  of  this  hotel  should  have 
been  a  sufficient  warning  to  me  of  the  expense  of  living  there, 
but  I  was  not  in  a  mood  to  anticipate  any  kind  of  unpleasant 
experience. 

It  is  a  beautiful  place  reached  by  a  funicular  railway  from 
a  station  about  fifteen  miles  from  Florence,  and  is  where 
Milton  wrote  parts  of  Paradise  Lost.  The  hotel  was  an  old 
castle  remodelled,  and  as  we  were  almost  the  only  guests  and 
were  attended  by  relays  of  most  obsequious  servants  we 
managed  to  feel  quite  baronial.  We  spent  our  time  being 
as  lazy  as  we  liked,  or  driving  in  the  dense  black  forests  of 
pine  which  cover  the  mountains  and  through  vistas  of  which 
we  could  catch  fascinating  glimpses  of  the  beautiful,  town- 
dotted  valley  of  the  Arno  some  thousands  of  feet  below. 

On  the  2Oth  of  July  my  husband  came  up  and  joined  us 
in  this  delightful  retreat.  He  had  just  received  his  final 
answer  from  the  Vatican  and,  while  he  was  disappointed 
at  not  being  able  to  settle  the  matter  then,  he  was  hopeful 
that  a  way  had  been  found  which,  though  it  would  entail 
much  future  labour,  would  lead  to  a  satisfactory  solution 

248 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

of  the  problems.  An  Apostolic  Delegate,  representing  the 
Vatican,  was  to  be  sent  to  Manila  to  continue  the  negotia- 
tions on  the  ground,  and  Pope  Leo  assured  Mr.  Taft  that 
he  would  receive  instructions  to  bring  about  such  an  adjust- 
ment as  the  United  States  desired.  This  assurance  was  car- 
ried out,  but  only  after  Leo's  long  pontificate  had  come  to  an 
end. 

The  final  note  was  written  by  Cardinal  Rampolla  who 
rendered  "homage  to  the  great  courtesy  and  high  capacity" 
with  which  Mr.  Taft  had  filled  "the  delicate  mission,"  and 
closed  by  declaring  his  willingness  to  concede  that  "the 
favourable  result"  must  in  a  large  measure  be  attributed 
to  my  husband's  "high  personal  qualities." 

I  had  hoped  to  have  Mr.  Taft  with  us  at  Vallombrosa 
for  a  week  or  so  before  he  sailed,  but  the  time  allotted  in  our 
plans  for  this  was  taken  up  by  delays  in  Rome,  so  that 
when  he  did  arrive  he  had  only  twenty-four  hours  to  stay. 
His  final  audience  with  the  Pope  was  arranged  for  the  fol- 
lowing Monday,  there  were  a  number  of  minor  details  to  be 
attended  to,  and  he  was  to  sail  Thursday  morning  from 
Naples  on  the  Princess  Irene,  to  which  he  had  been  obliged 
to  transfer  from  the  Koenig  Albert. 

The  last  audience  with  His  Holiness  consisted  chiefly  in 
an  exchange  of  compliments  and  expressions  of  thanks  for 
courtesies  extended,  but  it  had  additional  interest  in  that  the 
Pope  chose  to  make  it  the  occasion  for  personally  presenting 
to  the  members  of  the  party  certain  small  gifts,  or  souvenirs, 
which  he  had  selected  for  them.  He  had  previously  sent 
an  inquiry  through  Bishop  O'Gorman  as  to  whether  or 
not  the  Commissioners  would  accept  decorations,  but  Mr. 
Taft  replied  that  the  American  constitution  forbids  the  ac- 
ceptance of  such  honours  without  the  consent  of  Congress, 
so  nothing  more  was  said  about  it. 

The  presents  he  did  receive  were  a  handsome  Jubilee 
medal  displaying  a  portrait  of  His  Holiness  in  bas  relief, 

249 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  a  gold  pen  in  the  form  of  a  large  feather  with  the 
papal  arms  on  it.  To  me  the  Pope  sent  a  small  piece  of 
old  German  enamel  showing  a  copy  of  an  ancient  picture  of 
St.  Ursula  and  her  virgins,  framed  in  silver  and  gold  beau- 
tifully wrought.  Smaller  gold  medals  were  given  to  each 
of  the  other  Commissioners,  while  President  Roosevelt  re- 
ceived a  copy  in  mosaic  of  a  picture  of  a  view  of  Rome  from 
a  corner  in  the  Vatican  gardens  in  which  the  Pope  is  seen 
seated  with  three  or  four  Cardinals  in  attendance.  This, 
together  with  letters  from  His  Holiness  and  Cardinal  Ram- 
polla  to  the  President  and  Mr.  Hay,  the  Secretary  of  State, 
was  given  to  Bishop  O' Gorman  to  be  delivered  when  he 
arrived  in  the  United  States. 

My  husband  sailed  from  Naples  on  the  24th  of  July,  and 
I,  with  the  three  children  and  their  French  governess,  started 
north  by  Venice  and  Vienna  to  spend  a  few  weeks  in  the 
mountains  of  Switzerland  before  returning  to  Manila. 

There  were  rather  terrifying  reports  of  a  cholera  epidemic 
raging  in  the  Philippines  and  I  dreaded  the  prospects  of 
going  into  it  with  my  children,  but  I  knew  that  heroic  efforts 
were  being  made  to  check  it  and  I  felt  confident  that,  in 
Manila  at  least,  it  would  have  run  its  course  before  I  should 
arrive,  so  I  booked  passage  on  the  German  steamer  Hamburg 
and  on  the  3rd  of  September  sailed  for  the  East  and  the 
tropics  once  more. 


250 


CHAPTER  XII 

LAST   DAYS    IN    THE    PHILIPPINES 

WHEN  Mr.  Taft  reached  Manila  he  found  the  city  en  fete 
and  in  a  state  of  intense  excitement  which  had  prevailed  for 
two  days  during  which  the  people  had  expected  every  hour 
to  hear  the  great  siren  on  the  cold  storage  plant  announce 
that  the  little  A  lava,  the  government  coastguard  boat  which 
had  been  sent  to  Singapore  to  get  him,  had  been  sighted  off 
Corregidor. 

When  the  announcement  finally  came,  everything  in  the 
harbour  that  could  manage  to  do  so  steamed  down  the  Bay 
to  meet  him,  and  when  the  launch  to  which  he  had  trans- 
ferred from  the  A  lava  came  up  to  the  mouth  of  the  Pasig 
River  and  under  the  walls  of  old  Fort  Santiago,  seventeen 
guns  boomed  out  a  Governor's  salute,  while  whistles  and 
bells  and  sirens  all  over  the  bay  and  river  and  city  filled  the 
air  with  a  deafening  din. 

Wherever  his  eyes  rested  he  saw  people, — crowding  win- 
dows, roofs,  river  banks  and  city  walls,  all  of  them  cheering 
wildly  and  waving  hats  or  handkerchiefs.  And  the  thing 
which  moved  him  most  was  the  fact  that  the  welcoming 
throng  was  not  just  representative  of  the  wealthy  and  edu- 
cated class,  but  included  thousands  of  the  people,  barefooted 
and  in  calicoes,  who  had  come  in  from  the  neighbouring  and 
even  the  far  provinces  to  greet  him. 

Mrs.  Moses  asked  Mr.  Benito  Legarda,  one  of  the  Fili- 
pino members  of  the  Commission,  whether  or  not  there 
had  ever  been  a  like  demonstration  in  honour  of  the  arrival 
of  a  Spanish  Governor,  and  his  answer  was: 

"Yes,  there  were  demonstrations  always,  but  the  govern- 
ment paid  the  expenses." 

In  this  case  the  very  opposite  was  true.  The  government 
had  no  money  to  waste  on  celebrations  and  all  government 

251 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

buildings,  such  as  the  City  Hall,  the  Post  Office  and  the 
Ayuntamiento,  were  conspicuously  bare.  Their  nakedness 
was  positively  eloquent  of  economy  in  the  midst  of  the  riot 
of  gay  bunting,  the  flags,  the  pennants  and  the  palm  leaves 
in  which  the  rest  of  the  city  was  smothered.  Then  there 
were  extraordinary  and  elaborate  arches  spanning  the  streets 
through  which  the  Governor  was  to  be  conducted.  One  of 
these,  erected  by  the  Parti  do  Federal,  displayed  a  huge  al- 
legorical picture  which  had  a  peculiar  significance.  Filipina, 
a  lovely  lady  draped  in  flowing  gauze,  was  seen,  in  an  atti- 
tude which  combined  appeal  with  condescension,  presenting 
to  Columbia  a  single  star,  implying  that  she  desired  to  be 
accepted  as  one  of  the  States  of  the  Union. 

I  am  indebted  to  the  descriptive  art  of  Mrs.  Moses,  to 
photographs  and  to  my  own  knowledge  of  the  Filipino  way 
of  doing  things  for  the  mental  picture  I  have  of  this  cele- 
bration. 

At  the  landing  near  the  Custom  House  my  husband  found 
a  great  procession  in  line,  ready  to  escort  him  to  the  Ayun- 
tamiento where  the  speeches  of  welcome  were  to  be  made. 
There  were  regiments  of  cavalry,  infantry  and  artillery,  as 
well  as  platoon  after  platoon  of  native  and  American  police 
with  as  many  bands  as  there  were  divisions  of  the  procession. 
Picked  men  from  the  volunteer  regiments  acted  as  a  special 
guard  for  the  Governor's  carriage  and  they  must  have  added 
much  to  the  impressive  array,  because  I  know  of  my  own 
observation  that  the  volunteers  were  always  as  fine  a  looking 
body  of  men  as  it  would  be  possible  to  find  anywhere. 

When  Mr.  Taft  reached  the  Ayuntamiento  he  listened 
to  glowing  speeches  of  tribute  and  welcome  in  the  Marble 
Hall,  then  he  stood  for  hours  shaking  hands  with  the 
people  who,  in  orderly  file,  passed  in  and  out  of  the  building 
which  was  large  enough  to  hold  only  a  very  small  fraction 
of  them.  When  this  was  over  and  his  audience  had  settled 
down  he  proceeded  to  tell  them  in  a  clear  and  simple  way  all 

252 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

about  his  experiences  in  Rome  and  how  far  the  negotiations 
with  the  Vatican  had  proceeded.  This  was  a  matter  of 
paramount  importance  to  the  Filipinos  and  they  listened 
with  an  intensity  of  interest  which  Mr.  Taft  said  seemed  to 
promise  serious  consequences  if  the  business  could  not  be 
carried  to  a  successful  conclusion. 

However,  despite  the  joy  and  festivity  with  which  he  was 
greeted  upon  his  return,  the  Governor  did  not  find  general 
conditions  in  the  islands  either  prosperous  or  happy. 

Everything  that  could  possibly  happen  to  a  country  had 
happened  or  was  happening.  The  cholera  epidemic  was 
still  raging,  and  while  it  had  abated  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent in  Manila  it  was  at  its  worst  in  Iloilo  and  other  prov- 
inces. There  had  been  from  seventy  to  eighty  cases  a  day 
in  Manila  for  a  long  time,  and  the  quarantine  regulations 
had  incensed  the  ignorant  people  to  a  point  where  force  had 
to  be  used  to  secure  obedience.  They  did  not  understand 
sanitary  measures  and  wanted  none  of  them;  they  clung  to 
their  superstitious  beliefs,  and  were  easily  made  to  accept 
as  truth  wild  statements  to  the  effect  that  the  Americans  were 
poisoning  the  wells  and  rivers  and  had  stopped  transporta- 
tion and  business  with  the  sole  purpose  of  starving  or  other- 
wise destroying  the  entire  population.  Even  the  educated 
ones  were  not  without  their  time-honoured  prejudices  in  this 
regard,  for  while  Mr.  Taft  was  in  Rome  he  receive  a  cabled 
protest  from  Filipino  members  of  the  Commission  with  a  re- 
quest that  he  order  the  quarantine  raised. 

When  he  arrived  in  Manila  the  cholera  cases  had  fallen 
to  between  ten  and  twenty  a  day  and  business  had  been  re- 
sumed to  a  certain  extent,  but  the  situation  was  still  critical 
and  a  fresh  outbreak  on  account  of  polluted  water  was  to  be 
expected  at  any  time.  All  the  sources  of  water  supply  were 
patrolled  by  American  soldiers  day  and  night  and  every  pre- 
caution was  taken;  whole  sections  of  the  city  were  burned 
in  an  attempt  to  stamp  out  the  pestilence,  but  the  disease 

253 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

had  to  run  its  course  and  it  was  months  before  it  was  com- 
pletely eradicated. 

While  the  people  were  dying  of  cholera  the  carabaos,  the 
only  draught  and  farm  animals  in  the  Islands,  were  dying  by 
thousands  of  an  epidemic  of  rinderpest.  This  scourge,  too, 
was  fought  with  all  the  force  of  both  the  civil  and  military 
arms  of  the  government,  but  before  it  could  be  checked  it  had 
carried  off  a  large  majority  of  the  carabaos  in  the  Archi- 
pelago with  the  result  that  agriculture  and  all  other  indus- 
tries dependent  upon  this  mode  of  transportation  were 
paralysed.  A  general  drought  in  China  made  a  rice  famine 
a  practical  certainty,  even  if  the  people  should  have  money 
to  buy  rice,  so  the  future  looked  black  indeed. 

The  cholera  and  rinderpest  had  greatly  reduced  govern- 
ment revenues  and  many  plans  for  much  needed  public  works 
had  to  be  modified  or  abandoned,  while  the  condition  of  the 
currency  added  to  the  general  chaos.  There  was  no  gold 
standard  and  the  fluctuations  in  the  value  of  silver  made  it 
necessary  for  the  Governor  to  issue  a  proclamation  about 
once  a  week  fixing  a  new  rate  of  exchange.  In  this  way  it 
was  calculated  that  the  government,  with  insufficient  income 
at  the  best,  lost  a  round  million  dollars  gold  during  a  period 
of  ten  months. 

To  cap  all  and  add  exasperation  to  uneasiness  the  ladrones 
had  become  increasingly  active  with  hard  times  and  were 
harrying  the  districts  around  Manila  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  people  were  in  constant  terror.  The  ravages  of  the  rin- 
derpest had  made  the  carabao  a  very  valuable  animal  and 
the  chief  object  of  the  ladrones  was  to  steal  such  as  were  left 
and  drive  them  off  to  be  sold  in  distant  provinces.  Nor 
were  they  at  all  particular  about  their  highwaymen's 
methods  or  chary  of  sacrificing  human  life.  There  was  a 
veritable  hotbed  of  ladronism  at  Caloocan,  a  suburb  of 
Manila,  which  was  augmented  by  the  roughs  and  toughs 
from  the  crowded  and  miserable  districts  in  the  lower  city, 

254 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  LYEARS 

while  across  the  Bay  in  Cavite  province,  known  as  the 
"mother  of  insurrection,"  there  were  several  hundred  rifles 
in  the  hands  of  marauders  who  hid  away  in  the  hills  and 
jungles  and  made  conditions  such  that  Mr.  Taft  was  asked 
by  the  Director  of  Constabulary  to  suspend  the  writ  of  ha- 
beas corpus,  thus  declaring  the  province  in  a  practical  state  of 
siege.  Mr.  Taft  would  not  do  this,  saying  that  he  thought 
the  only  course  was  to  "hammer  away  with  the  constabulary 
until  the  abuse  was  stamped  out  by  the  regular  methods  of 
supposedly  peaceful  times,"  but  the  worst  feature  of  the 
situation  was  that  wherever  ladronism  showed  its  head  there 
would  be  cohorts  of  "irreconcilables" — posing  in  e very-day 
life  as  loyal  citizens — ready,  within  the  limits  of  personal 
safety,  to  encourage  and  assist  it.  Anything  to  hamper  and 
harass  the  government. 

Shortly  after  Mr.  Taft's  arrival  in  Manila,  the  vice-Gov- 
ernor, General  Wright,  and  Mrs.  Wright  left  the  Islands  for 
a  well-earned  vacation  and  my  husband  wrote  that  the 
amount  of  work  which  confronted  him  was  staggering.  He 
took  on  General  Wright's  department  in  addition  to  his 
own  duties,  and  if  it  hadn't  been  that  he  had  at  least 
half  way  learned  not  to  try  to  "hurry  the  East"  he  probably 
would  not  have  lasted  long. 

Among  the  first  steps  to  be  taken  was  to  provide  against 
the  inevitable  famine,  and  to  do  this  it  was  necessary  for 
the  Government  to  send  to  China  and  Saigon  for  large  quan- 
tities of  rice  to  be  stored  in  public  godowns.  They  bought 
and  brought  to  Manila  something  like  forty  million  pounds 
of  this  first  of  all  necessities  to  an  oriental  people,  and  the 
intention  was  to  sell  it  at  cost  when  the  market  supply  began 
to  run  low  and  prices  began  to  soar  beyond  the  poor  man's 
reach.  A  certain  degree  of  paternalism  has  always  been, 
is  now,  and  probably  always  will  be  necessary  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Filipino  people. 

Mr.  Taft  besought  the  United  States  Congress  to  appro- 

255 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

priate  a  sum  to  be  used  for  the  importation  of  work  animals, 
for  the  purchase  of  rice  and  the  furnishing  of  work  on  pub- 
lic improvements.  The  animals  were  not  to  be  given 
away,  but  were  eventually  to  be  sold  at  reasonable  prices. 
Three  millions  were  appropriated  and  spent. 

Congress  was  also  petitioned  to  establish  a  gold  standard 
of  currency,  and  this  too  was  done,  to  the  inexpressible  relief 
of  everybody  interested  in  the  Philippine  welfare,  in  the 
following  January.  The  currency  now  is  as  sound  as  our 
own,  every  silver  peso,  which  corresponds  to  the  old  "dollar 
Mex,"  being  worth  fifty  cents  gold. 

When  I  arrived  in  Manila  in  early  October  I  found  the 
situation  more  interesting  than  it  had  ever  been,  even  though 
it  was  distracting  to  the  men  who  had  to  deal  with  it.  My 
first  necessity  was,  of  course,  to  settle  myself  once  more  at 
Malacanan.  During  my  absence  the  old  Palace  had  been 
all  done  over,  painted  and  patched  and  cleaned  and  redec- 
orated until  it  was  quite  unlike  its  quaint,  old  dilapidated 
self.  Some  of  the  colours  were  a  shade  too  pronounced  and 
some  of  the  decorations  ran  a  little  more  to  "graceful  pat- 
terns" than  suited  my  taste,  but  I  was  glad  of  the  added  com- 
fort and  cleanliness. 

It  was  difficult  in  the  beginning  to  accustom  myself  to 
cholera  conditions.  The  disease  was  communicated  to  very 
few  Americans  or  other  white  foreigners,  but  safety  was  se- 
cured at  the  price  of  eternal  vigilance.  Water  could  not 
be  drunk  unless  it  was  boiled  under  one's  personal  super- 
vision ;  nothing  uncooked  could  be  eaten,  not  even  a  piece  of 
imported  fruit,  unless  it  had  first  been  washed  in  a  carbolic 
solution,  a  process,  I  may  say,  which  added  nothing  desirable 
to  its  flavour;  a  good  many  other  precautions  were  necessary 
which  made  us  feel  as  if  we  were  living  always  in  the  lower- 
ing shadow  of  some  dreadful  catastrophe,  but,  even  so,  we 
were  surprisingly  calm  about  it — everybody  was — and 

256 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

managed  to  come  through  the  experience  without  any  visible 
ill-effects. 

There  was  one  new  thing  for  me,  and  that  was  a  live  cow. 
For  two  long  years  we  had  manfully  striven  to  make  our- 
selves believe  that  we  liked  canned  milk  and  condensed 
cream  just  as  much  as  we  liked  the  fresh  milk  we  had  been 
used  to  all  our  lives.  In  fact,  we  were  fond  of  declaring 
that  we  couldn't  tell  the  difference.  But  we  could.  And  in 
our  secret  hearts  we  all  welcomed  as  the  most  delectable 
treat  an  occasional  gift  of  skimmed  milk  from  a  friend  who 
had  been  a  pioneer  in  the  momentous  venture  of  importing 
an  Australian  cow. 

The  importation  of  our  cow  was  a  real  event,  and  she 
straightway  took  up  a  position  of  great  dignity  and  impor- 
tance in  our  establishment.  She  roamed  at  will  about  the 
grounds  of  the  Palace  and  her  general  conduct  was  the  sub- 
ject of  daily  comment  in  the  family  circle.  A  number  of 
people  brought  in  cows  about  this  time,  but  very  few  of  them 
lived  long  enough  to  prove  their  dairy  worth.  Our  cow 
flourished  and  gave  forth  large  quantities  of  milk,  and  this 
fact  became  the  subject  of  what  was  supposed  to  be  a  huge 
joke. 

Mr.  Worcester,  who  was  the  high  chief  health  author- 
ity in  the  Islands,  decreed  that  all  animals  as  they  were 
brought  in  should  be  inoculated  for  rinderpest,  tuberculosis, 
and  a  number  of  other  things, — "including  prickly  heat," 
said  General  Wright, — but  it  just  so  happened  that  a  great 
majority  of  these  scientifically  treated  beasts  died  almost  im- 
mediately, and  General  Wright  could  always  arouse  the 
wrath  of  Mr.  Worcester — a  thing  he  loved  to  do — by  sug- 
gesting that  the  only  reason  our  cow  lived  was  because  "she 
had  not  been  inoculated." 

The  presence  of  the  cow  having  given  me  a  true  farmer 
spirit — at  least,  I  suppose  it  was  the  cow — I  decided  to  have 

257 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

a  gar3en.  There  were  very  few  vegetables  that  the  Fili- 
pinos knew  how  to  raise  at  that  time,  and  our  longing  for 
fresh  things  was  constant  and  intense.  I  selected  a  promis- 
ing looking  spot  behind  the  Palace,  had  it  prepared  for  plant- 
ing, then  I  bought  a  supply  of  fresh  American  seeds  and  care- 
fully buried  them  in  places  where  I  thought  they  might 
develop  into  something.  The  result  was  positively  astonish- 
ing. The  soil  was  rich  and  the  sun  was  hot,  and  in  an  incred- 
ibly short  time  we  were  having  quantities  of  beans  and  cauli- 
flower and  big  red  tomatoes  and  all  kinds  of  things. 

My  ambition  grew  with  success  and  I  branched  out  into 
poultry.  The  first  thing  anybody  knew  I  had  a  big  screened 
yard  full  of  chickens  and  turkeys  little  and  big,  which  were 
a  source  of  great  enjoyment  to  us  all  both  in  their  noisy 
feathered  state  in  the  chicken  yard  and  done  up  in  a  variety 
of  Ah  Sing  styles  on  our  very  well  supplied  table.  I  won- 
der how  my  cook  made  up  the  "squeeze"  out  of  which  he 
was  cheated  by  my  industry  and  thrift. 

But,  dwelling  on  these  minor  details  I  am  getting  far 
ahead  of  my  story.  There  were  many  things  in  the  mean- 
while engaging  my  attention,  the  most  important  of  which,  I 
suppose,  was  the  great  church  schism. 

Gregorio  Aglipay,  an  Ilocano  priest  of  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church,  joined  the  original  insurrection  against  Spain,  or 
the  Friars  rather,  at  its  inception  and  was  excommunicated. 
He  became  an  insurgent  leader  with  a  reputation  for 
great  cruelty,  and  continued  in  the  field  against  Spain, 
and  subsequently  against  the  United  States,  until  re- 
sistance was  no  longer  possible.  He  was  among  the 
last  insurrecto  chiefs  to  surrender  in  northern  Luzon.  When 
peace  was  restored  he  began  immediately  to  solicit  the  in- 
terest and  aid  of  other  Filipino  priests,  of  politicians  and 
influential  men  in  a  plan  for  organising  an  Independent  Fili- 
pino Catholic  Church,  and  his  temporary  success  must  have 
surprised  even  him. 

258 


ARCH    ERECTED  BY  THE     PARTIDO    FEDERAL    REPRESENTING 

FILIPINA    OFFERING    ANOTHER    STAR    TO    THE 

AMERICAN    FLAG 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

While  the  people  loved  Catholicism,  the  failure  of  the 
Vatican  to  accede  to  their  wishes  with  respect  to  the  Friars, 
as  expressed  by  the  American  Commission  to  Rome,  added 
impetus  to  the  rebellious  movement  and  when  the  announce- 
ment of  the  new  organisation  was  made  it  was  found  to  be 
based  on  the  strongest  kind  of  support.  Aglipay  consti- 
tuted himself  Obispo  Maximo,  assumed  a  fine  regalia,  and 
conferred  upon  fifteen  or  more  of  his  lieutenants  the  regular 
church  dignities  and  titles  of  a  lesser  order.  He  offered  the 
people  the  same  ceremonies,  the  same  relief,  the  same  con- 
fessional, and  the  same  faith  generally  to  which  they  had 
always  been  accustomed,  so  they  found  it  easy  enough  to 
transfer  their  allegiance,  and  the  new  church  gained  adher- 
ents with  such  startling  rapidity  that  it  seemed  as  if  a  ma- 
jority of  the  population  would  go  over  to  it. 

The  result  may  easily  be  imagined.  The  Roman  Catholic 
organisation  had  controlled  Philippine  affairs,  both  temporal 
and  spiritual,  for  so  long  that  the  possibility  of  a  rebellion 
of  this  character  had  never  been  thought  of.  Every  loyal 
Catholic,  and  especially  every  bishop  and  priest  and  friar, 
was  horrified,  and  an  almost  frantic  controversy  began  to 
rage  about  the  devoted  head  of  the  civil  Governor  as  soon  as 
he  arrived  in  Manila.  He  was  appealed  to  to  take  drastic 
action  to  suppress  the  movement  and  because  he  could  do 
nothing  even  to  check  it  the  American  government  was  re- 
viled in  the  Catholic  press  as  it  had  never  been  reviled  before. 
Mr.  Taf t  calmly  met  the  storm  with  an  iteration  and  reitera- 
tion of  American  principles  of  religious  toleration,  and  de- 
clared that  he  had  neither  right  nor  wish  to  try  to  direct  the 
religious  inclinations  of  the  people,  and  that  all  he  could 
do  in  the  matter  was  to  enforce  the  keeping  of  the  peace. 

The  people  had  been  taught  by  Aglipay  and  his  fellow- 
conspirators,  and,  indeed,  by  the  whole  history  of  church 
buildings  in  the  Islands,  that  church  properties  belonged  to 
the  people  and  that  if  they  wished  to  do  so  it  was  right  for 

259 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  JEARS 

them  to  oust  the  regularly  constituted  priests  from  the 
churches  and  to  turn  these  edifices  over  to  the  Independent 
body.  This  the  government  would  not  allow,  holding  that 
any  dispute  over  property  rights  must  be  settled  by  due  proc- 
ess of  law.  A  few  riots  ensued  wherein  the  constabulary 
and  police  came  in  violent  contact  with  the  Aglipayanos,  but 
the  Filipino  is  quick  to  recognise  justice,  and  this  decree  of 
the  government  was  very  readily  given  general  acceptance. 

Mr.  Taft  was  repeatedly  warned  by  the  allies  of  Rome 
that  the  movement  was  nothing  but  a  cloak  for  the  worst  in- 
surrection against  the  government  that  the  Filipinos  had  yet 
attempted,  and  this  suspicion  was  somewhat  strengthened  by 
the  fact  that  many  of  the  least  tractable  insurrecto  leaders 
were  among  its  directors,  but  in  the  main  the  schismatics 
evinced  every  desire  to  obey  the  injunction  laid  upon  them 
not  to  resort  to  incendiary  methods.  And  it  was  thought 
that  the  treatment  they  received  in  return  would  probably  do 
more  than  all  the  preaching  in  the  world  to  convince  them 
that  under  American  sovereignty  they  were  actually  to  enjoy 
complete  religious  freedom. 

Liberty  to  take  possession  of  property  by  force  was  denied 
them,  but  liberty  to  think  and  worship  as  they  pleased  was 
not  only  given  them,  but  in  the  peaceful  exercise  of  this 
liberty  they  even  enjoyed  police  protection,  and  this  was  a 
never-before-heard-of  thing  which  gave  them  food  for  very 
serious  thought.  Under  Spanish  dominion  Aglipay  would 
have  been  taken  to  the  Luneta  and  shot  as  Jose  Rizal  was 
shot,  and  his  followers  would  have  met  and  mourned  in 
secret,  but  the  American  authorities  held,  according  to  Ameri- 
can beliefs,  that  an  Aglipay  an,  or  independent  Catholic  or- 
ganisation, had  as  much  right  to  parade  in  the  streets  with 
candles  and  images  as  had  the  Roman  Catholic  or  any  other 
religious  body. 

Mr.  Taft  had  vaguely  suggested  the  possibility  of  some 
such  development  as  this  during  his  visit  to  the  Vatican, 

260 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

but  it  made  no  impression.  However,  now  that  it  had  come, 
it  gave  the  American  Commission  some  advantage  in  the 
Friars  and  Friars'  lands  negotiations  because  it  was  sure  to 
convince  the  Vatican  that  the  case  of  the  Friars  was  hope- 
less and  so  inspire  speedier  action  than  might  otherwise  be 
hoped  for. 

In  the  midst  of  it  all  the  Apostolic  Delegate,  Archbishop 
Guidi  of  Stauropoli,  arrived  from  Rome !  He  was  an  Ital- 
ian, very  friendly  and  tolerant,  with  neither  fanatic  nor 
ascetic  tendencies.  He  was  by  no  means  adverse  to  tak- 
ing part  in  any  kind  of  social  gaiety  and  I  remember  that 
at  one  of  our  first  entertainments  after  his  arrival  he  ex- 
pressed great  regret  that  he  could  not  join  in  the  Rigodon. 
I  came  to  enjoy  association  with  him  exceedingly. 

At  one  of  my  first  receptions  that  season  quite  a  dramatic 
scene  occurred  in  the  ballroom.  A  thousand  or  more  peo- 
ple, perhaps,  had  passed  the  receiving  line.  Monsignor 
Guidi  came  in  all  his  stately  regalia,  and  shortly  afterward 
Aglipay  put  in  an  appearance.  The  people  wandered 
around  all  over  the  place,  circulating  through  the  spacious 
gardens  and  around  the  verandahs,  so  there  was  a  possibility 
that  these  two  would  not  meet  even  though  they  were  both 
very  conspicuous  figures.  But  it  was  not  long  before  the 
Papal  Delegate  hurried  up  to  Mr.  Taft  and,  in  a  state  of 
visible  excitement,  inquired  who  the  stranger  in  the  striking 
religious  garb  might  be. 

"That,"  said  Mr.  Taft,  "is  Aglipay." 

"But,  you  know,"  said  the  Monsignor,  "it  is  impossible 
for  you  to  receive  him  here  when  I  am  present!" 

Then  Mr.  Taft  once  more  laboriously  explained  the 
standpoint  of  the  American  government,  saying  that  Agli- 
pay was  in  his  house  in  his  private  capacity  as  a  citizen,  that 
he  had  as  much  right  there  as  any  other  citizen,  and  that  it 
would  not  be  possible  to  ask  him  to  leave  as  long  as  he 
conducted  himself  as  a  guest  should. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

"Then,  I  shall  have  to  go,"  said  Monsignor  Guidi. 

"I  am  very  sorry,"  said  Mr.  Taft.  "I  understand  your 
position  perfectly  and  I  trust  you  understand  mine  as  well." 

So  the  highest  of  insular  Church  dignitaries  got  his  hat 
and  hastened  away  while  the  "renegade  and  impious  im- 
postor" remained — in  serene  unconsciousness  of  the  disturb- 
ance he  had  created4?  Perhaps  not.  At  least  he  was  se- 
rene. 

But  our  relations  with  Monsignor  Guidi  continued  most 
agreeable  during  our  entire  stay  in  the  Islands.  Mr.  Taft 
thought  very  highly  of  him  as  a  man  and  an  ecclesiastical 
statesman  and  diplomat  and  greatly  regretted  his  death 
which  occurred  after  we  left  the  Islands.  Through  him, 
the  question  of  the  Friars'  lands  was  settled  as  Pope  Leo 
had  told  Mr.  Taft  it  would  be,  satisfactorily  to  the  United 
States.  To  bring  that  story,  which  was  distractingly  long 
drawn  out  in  reality,  to  a  close,  I  will  merely  add  that  the 
government  succeeded  in  purchasing  the  Friars'  lands  for 
the  sum  of  $7,000,000;  they  were  turned  into  a  public 
domain  to  be  sold  under  most  encouraging  conditions,  to 
their  tenants  and  others  who  wished  to  acquire  homesteads. 
The  Friars  were  not  sent  back  to  the  parishes  and  many  left 
the  Islands. 

However  this  was  not  brought  about  without  the  pro- 
tracted exercise  of  patience  and  diplomacy  in  the  very  midst 
of  which  the  long  arm  of  Washington  reached  out  and 
touched  my  busy  husband  on  the  shoulder.  He  came  home 
one  day  with  a  puzzled  air  and  a  cablegram  from  President 
Roosevelt.  This  cablegram  read,  in  part: 

Taft,  Manila.  On  January  first  there  will  be  a  vacancy  on  the 
Supreme  Court  to  which  I  earnestly  desire  to  appoint  you.  ...  I 
feel  that  your  duty  is  on  the  Court  unless  you  have  decided  not 
to  adopt  a  judicial  career.  I  greatly  hope  you  will  accept.  Would 
appreciate  early  answer. 

ROOSEVELT. 
262 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

This  came  before  I  had  been  in  the  Islands  a  month  and 
when  Mr.  Taft  was  so  deep  in  the  complications  of  his 
work  that  he  was  almost  a  stranger  to  his  friends. 

There  was  an  accompanying  cablegram  from  Secretary 
Root  strongly  urging  acceptance  on  the  score  of  my  hus- 
band's impaired  health.  Mr.  Root  declared  that  he  was 
most  unwilling  to  lose  his  services  in  the  Philippines,  but 
thought  it  better  for  him  "not  to  take  any  serious  risk  of 
breaking  down  and  having  to  leave  the  Islands  an  invalid 
even  after  a  considerable  period  of  further  service."  As 
Mr.  Taft  was  feeling  particularly  well  and  was  taking  daily 
exercise  and  keeping  himself  in  excellent  condition  this 
sounded  rather  like  anticipating  a  very  unlikely  calamity, 
but  the  last  time  Mr.  Root  had  seen  him  he  was  anything 
but  robust  so  it  was  easy  to  understand  the  Secretary's 
friendly  concern  for  him. 

What  to  do?  This  was  not  a  question  which  gave  Mr. 
Taft  even  a  shade  of  hesitation,  because  he  knew  imme- 
diately what  he  must  do.  All  his  life  his  first  ambition  had 
been  to  attain  the  Supreme  Bench.  To  him  it  meant  the 
crown  of  the  highest  career  that  a  man  can  seek,  and  he 
wanted  it  as .  strongly  as  a  man  can  ever  want  anything. 
But  now  that  the  opportunity  had  come  acceptance  was  not 
to  be  thought  of.  I  had  always  been  opposed  to  a  judicial 
career  for  him,  but  at  this  point  I  shall  have  to  admit  I 
weakened  just  a  little.  I  remembered  the  year  of  illness 
and  anxiety  we  had  just  been  through;  and  sometimes  I 
yearned  to  be  safe  in  Washington  even  though  it  did  mean 
our  settlement  in  the  "fixed  groove"  that  I  had  talked 
against  for  so  long. 

Mr.  Taft's  plain  and  unmistakable  duty  held  him  in  the 
Philippine  Islands.  He  knew  he  could  not  detach  himself 
completely  from  the  enterprise  upon  which  he  was  engaged 
without  grave  consequences  to  it.  His  one  cause  for  un- 
certainty as  to  what  he  should  do  lay  in  a  suspicion  that  he 

263 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

might  have  done  something  to  embarrass  the  Administration 
in  a  political  sense,  or  that  his  opponents  in  the  monastic 
orders  and  Friars'  lands  controversy  might  have  made  repre- 
sentations which  caused  the  President  to  consider  his  re- 
moval "upstairs"  advisable.  He  discussed  the  matter  con- 
fidentially with  Mr.  Benito  Legarda  and  with  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Philippines,  Mr.  Arellano,  and  the  comment 
of  the  Chief  Justice  was:  "There,  the  influence  of  the 
FriarS  has  reached  even  to  Washington."  Mr.  Taft  cabled 
to  his  brother  Henry  in  New  York  to  make  private  inquiries 
in  this  connection,  since  he  did  not  wish  to  remain  in  the 
islands  if  his  presence  there  was  in  any  way  undesirable, 
but  at  the  same  time  he  cabled  to  the  President : 

President  Roosevelt,  Washington.  Great  honour  deeply  appre- 
ciated but  must  decline.  Situation  here  most  critical  from  eco- 
nomic standpoint.  Change  proposed  would  create  much  disap- 
pointment and  lack  of  confidence  among  people.  Two  years  now 
to  follow  of  greater  importance  to  development  of  islands  than 
previous  two  years.  Cholera,  rinderpest,  religious  excitement, 
ladrones,  monetary  crisis,  all  render  most  unwise  change  of  Gov- 
ernor. These  are  sentiments  of  my  colleagues  and  two  or  three 
leading  Filipinos  consulted  confidentially.  Nothing  would  satisfy 
individual  taste  more  than  acceptance.  Look  forward  to  the  time 
when  I  can  accept  such  an  offer,  but  even  if  it  is  certain  that  it  can 
never  be  repeated  I  must  now  decline.  Would  not  assume  to 
answer  in  such  positive  terms  in  view  of  words  of  your  despatch  if 
gravity  of  situation  here  was  not  necessarily  known  to  me  better 
than  it  can  be  known  in  Washington.  TAFT. 

He  also  sent  the  following  cablegram  to  Secretary  Root : 

Secwar,  Washington.  Referring  to  cablegram  from  your  office 
of  26th  inst.  (October,  1902)  my  health  is  about  as  good  as  when 
I  landed  in  1900,  but  conditions  here  would  make  my  withdrawal, 
unless  absolutely  compulsory,  violation  of  duty.  It  may  be  that 
I  shall  be  ill  again,  but  I  am  more  careful  now  than  before. 
Chance  has  thrown  every  obstacle  in  the  way  of  our  success,  but 
we  shall  win.  I  long  for  a  judicial  career  but  if  it  must  turn  on 
my  present  decision  I  am  willing  to  lose  it.  TAFT. 

264 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

In  late  November  Mr.  Taft  received  this  letter  from  the 
President : 

Dear  Will,  I  am  disappointed,  of  course,  that  the  situation  is 
such  as  to  make  you  feel  it  unwise  for  you  to  leave,  because,  ex- 
actly as  no  man  can  quite  do  your  work  in  the  islands,  so  no  man 
can  quite  take  your  place  as  the  new  member  of  the  Court.  But, 
if  possible,  your  refusal  on  the  ground  you  give  makes  me  admire 
you  and  believe  in  you  more  than  ever.  I  am  quite  at  a  loss  whom 
to  appoint  to  the  Bench  in  the  place  I  meant  for  you.  Every- 
thing else  must  give  way  to  putting  in  the  right  man;  but  I  can't 
make  up  my  mind  who  is  the  right  man. 

Always  affectionately  yours, 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

So  ended  that  period  of  wondering  what  we  were  to  do. 
At  least  I  thought  it  was  ended,  and  while  I  settled  down  to 
the  continued  and  continuous  round  of  social  "work"  and 
pleasure,  Mr.  Taft  proceeded  with  his  strenuous  fight 
against  accumulated  and  complicated  difficulties.  We  had 
Major  General  and  Mrs.  Miles  with  us  at  Malacanan  for 
a  time  and  after  they  left  I  went  down  to  Batangas,  where 
General  Bell  was  in  command,  to  "rest"  awhile  in  Mrs. 
Bell's  somewhat  less  crowded  and  exciting  circle.  I  ac- 
cepted with  a  high  degree  of  pleasure  the  prospect  of  per- 
haps two  more  years  in  this  very  interesting  field  of  work, 
but  President  Roosevelt  had  other  views.  It  was  scarcely 
a  month  after  the  Supreme  Court  incident  was  supposed  to 
be  closed  when  Mr.  Taft  received  a  letter  which  reopened 
it  with  a  decisiveness  which  seemed  final.  Such  parts  of 
the  letter  as  bear  directly  on  the  proposal  to  Mr.  Taft  I 
shall  quote: 

Dear  Will,  I  am  awfully  sorry,  old  man,  but  after  faithful 
effort  for  a  month  to  try  to  arrange  matters  on  the  basis  you 
wanted  I  find  that  I  shall  have  to  bring  you  home  and  put  you  on 
the  Supreme  Court.  I  am  very  sorry.  I  have  the  greatest  con- 
fidence in  your  judgment,  but,  after  all,  old  fellow,  if  you  will 
permit  me  to  say  so,  I  am  President  and  see  the  whole  field.  The 

265 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

responsibility  for  any  error  must  ultimately  come  upon  me,  and 
therefore  I  cannot  shirk  the  responsibility  or  in  the  last  resort  yield 
to  any  one  else's  decision  if  my  judgment  is  against  it.  After  the 
most  careful  thought;  after  the  most  earnest  effort  as  to  what  you 
desired  and  thought  best,  I  have  come,  irrevocably,  to  the  decision 
that  I  shall  appoint  you  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  vacancy 
caused  by  Judge  Shims'  resignation.  ...  I  am  very  sorry  if  what 
I  am  doing  displeases  you,  but  as  I  said,  old  man,  this  is  one  of  the 
cases  where  the  President,  if  he  is  fit  for  his  position,  must  take  the 
responsibility  and  put  the  men  on  whom  he  most  relies  in  the  particu- 
lar positions  in  which  he  himself  thinks  they  can  render  the  greatest 
public  good.  I  shall  therefore  about  February  first  nominate  you 
as  I  have  suggested.  With  affectionate  regard, 

Ever  yours, 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

This  seemed  final  enough  as  to  be  quite  unanswerable,  so 
I  heaved  a  sigh  of  resignation  and  made  some  remark  about 
the  not  unpleasing  prospect  of  our  all  getting  home  alive  at 
any  rate.  General  Wright  was  to  succeed  to  the  Governor- 
ship, which  was  a  great  consolation  to  my  husband,  and  we 
began  at  once  to  outline  a  programme  of  obedience  to  the 
President.  Mr.  Taft  announced  his  impending  departure 
and  really  considered  that  further  argument  was  useless,  but 
conditions  were  such  that  he  could  not  resist  the  temptation 
to  hazard  one  more  protest.  He  cabled  to  Mr.  Roosevelt : 

The  President,  Washington,  Recognise  soldier's  duty  to  obey 
orders.  Before  orders  irrevocable  by  action  however  I  presume 
on  our  personal  friendship  even  in  the  face  of  your  letter  to  make 
one  more  appeal,  in  which  I  lay  aside  wholly  my  strong  personal 
disinclination  to  leave  work  of  intense  interest  half  done.  No  man 
is  indispensable;  my  death  would  little  interfere  with  programme, 
but  my  withdrawal  more  serious.  Circumstances  last  three  years 
have  convinced  these  people,  controlled  largely  by  personal  feel- 
ing, that  I  am  their  friend  and  stand  for  a  policy  of  confidence  in 
them  and  belief  in  their  future  and  for  extension  of  self-govern- 
ment as  they  show  themselves  worthy.  Visit  to  Rome  and  pro- 
posals urged  there  assure  them  of  my  sympathy  in  regard  to 
friars  in  respect  to  whose  far-reaching  influence  they  are  mor- 

266 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

bidly  suspicious.  Announcement  of  withdrawal  pending  settle- 
ment of  church  question,  economic  crises,  and  formative  political 
period  when  opinions  of  all  parties  are  being  slowly  moulded  for 
the  better,  will,  I  fear,  give  impression  that  change  of  policy  is 
intended  because  other  reasons  for  action  will  not  be  understood. 
My  successor's  task  is  thus  made  much  heavier  because  any  loss  of 
the  people's  confidence  distinctly  retards  our  work  here.  I  feel 
it  is  my  duty  to  say  this.  If  your  judgment  is  unshaken  I  bow 
to  it  and  shall  earnestly  and  enthusiastically  labour  to  settle  ques- 
tion friars'  lands  before  I  leave,  and  to  convince  the  people  that 
no  change  of  policy  is  at  hand;  that  Wright  is  their  warm  friend 
as  sincere  as  they  think  me,  and  that  we  both  are  but  exponents 
of  the  sincere  good  will  toward  them  of  yourself  and  the  Ameri- 
can people.  TAFT. 

After  this  things  began  to  happen  which  nobody,  least  of 
all  my  husband,  had  anticipated.  When  the  announcement 
was  made  that  we  were  to  leave  there  was,  at  first,  just  a 
buzz  of  astonishment  and  incredulity,  but  within  two  days 
the  whole  city  of  Manila  was  placarded,  in  all  the  neces- 
sary languages,  with  the  simple  and  uniform  sentiment: 
"Queremos  Taft,"  "WE  WANT  TAFT."  Mr.  Root's  render- 
ing of  this  in  English  was  "I  want  you,  Mah  Honey,  yes,  I 
do."  These  announcements  were  printed  in  letters  of  all 
sizes  and  all  colours,  but  the  wording  did  not  vary  in  the 
slightest  degree;  just,  "WE  WANT  TAFT." 

Then  on  the  morning  of  the  loth  of  January — the  letter 
from  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  received  on  the  6th — we  saw 
marching  through  the  gates  of  Malacanan  a  column  of 
citizens,  blocks  long,  with  bands  playing,  flags  flying  and 
many  transparencies  bobbing  over  their  heads.  These  citi- 
zens packed  themselves  around  the  entrance  of  the  Palace 
and  proceeded  to  make  a  demonstration.  It  was  rather  sad- 
dening to  us  in  view  of  our  conviction  that  we  must  go,  but 
we  listened  with  what  composure  we  could  command  to  the 
eloquent  speeches.  The  speakers  came  up  into  the  Palace 
and  addressed  the  crowd  from  a  great  window  over  the 
main  entrance. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Dr.  Dominador  Gomez,  one  of  the  popular  orators  and 
labour  agitators,  began  by  saying  that  Mr.  Taft  was  the 
"saint"  who  had  "the  power  to  perform  the  great  miracle" 
of  uniting  the  distinct  opinions  and  contrary  motives  of  the 
people,  and  declared  that  "this  is  a  spontaneous  demonstra- 
tion of  affection  for  our  Governor  which  is  to  be  reduced  to 
expression  in  a  respectful  petition  to  the  President." 

Dr.  Xeres  Burgos,  an  old  insurrecto,  said  he  spoke  for  no 
political  party  but  in  behalf  of  the  mass  of  people  which 
surrounded  us, — "this  people  who  wish  to  say  to  you  that  all 
those  calamities  which  have  weighed  and  do  weigh  upon  the 
Filipinos  are  as  nothing  compared  with  the  evil  effect  caused 
by  your  impending  departure  from  this  government,  just 
at  the  precise  moment  when  the  Filipino  people  expect, 
through  your  honesty  and  love  for  them,  an  end  to  all  eco- 
nomic and  governmental  disturbances,  as  well  as  the  solu- 
tion of  the  agricultural  problem  which  is  so  closely  inter- 
woven with  the  Friar  question.  The  Filipino  people  trust 
that  the  home  government  will  not  tear  from  their  arms 
their  beloved  governor  upon  whom  depends  the  happy  solu- 
tion of  all  Philippine  questions.  In  a  word:  the  Filipino 
people  desire  the  continuation  of  Governor  Taft  in  these 
Islands!" 

Tomaso  G.  del  Rosario  likened  Mr.  Taft  to  a  ship's  rud- 
der adept  at  "avoiding  shallows"  and  "bringing  her  safe 
into  port."  Then  he  said  the  Philippines  were  "rising 
from  the  ashes  of  a  momentous  revolution  and  advancing 
toward  the  future  with  a  heart  full  of  enthusiasm  and  hope," 
and  that  "a  ruler  lacking  the  qualifications  so  happily  com- 
bined in  Mr.  Taft  might  faint  by  the  wayside." 

There  were  other  speeches,  but  the  climax  came  when 
Pedro  A.  Paterno  began  by  comparing  Mr.  Taft  with  Jesus 
Christ,  saying  that  "as  Christ  had  converted  the  cross  into 
a  symbol  of  glory  and  triumph,  so  had  Governor  Taft 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

turned  a  dying  people  to  the  light  and  life  of  modern  liber- 
ties." 

This  sounds  quite  blasphemous  in  English,  but  the  Fil- 
ipinos take  strange  liberties  with  holy  names  which  shock 
us  but  which  to  them  are  mere  expressions  of  piety.  Jesus 
is  a  favourite  name  for  boy  babies,  while  there  is  a  street  of 
"The  Heart  of  Jesus"  in  Manila,  and  many  others  equally 
inconsistent  with  our  more  reticent  taste. 

Needless  to  say  the  cable  between  Manila  and  Washing- 
ton was  crowded  that  day  with  protests  to  the  President; 
protests  not  only  from  citizens  and  committees  of  citizens, 
but  from  all  Mr.  Taft's  colleagues  in  the  government,  both 
Filipino  and  American.  Two  days  later  my  husband  re- 
ceived a  message  from  Mr.  Roosevelt  which  gave  us  all  a 
hearty  laugh.  It  read,  simply:  "Taft,  Manila,  All  right 
stay  where  you  are.  I  shall  appoint  some  one  else  to  the 
Court.  ROOSEVELT." 

Altogether  it  was  quite  an  exciting  event.  After  the 
"smoke  of  battle"  had  cleared  away  Mr.  Taft  rose  up  out  of 
his  depression  and  went  to  work  with  renewed  vigour  and 
strengthened  confidence,  but  I  began  to  think  that  after  all 
the  demonstrations  and  protestations  we  should  have  to 
remain  in  the  Islands  the  rest  of  our  lives  whether  we  wanted 
to  or  not.  Six  months  later,  however,  we  learned,  to 
our  consternation,  that  Mr.  Root  was  going  to  resign  as 
Secretary  of  War  in  the  fall  or  winter  following,  and  with- 
out a  moment's  hesitation  as  far  as  we  could  judge,  the  posi- 
tion was  offered  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  to  Mr.  Taft.  It  was 
urged  upon  him,  in  fact.  This  was  much  more  pleasing  to 
me  than  the  offer  of  the  Supreme  Court  appointment,  be- 
cause it  was  in  line  with  the  kind  of  work  I  wanted  my  hus- 
band to  do,  the  kind  of  career  I  wanted  for  him  and  ex- 
pected him  to  have,  so  I  was  glad  there  were  few  excuses 
for  refusing  to  accept  it  open  to  him.  If  it  hadn't  been 

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that  it  was  merely  a  case  of  transferring  his  services  from 
the  necessarily  restricted  field  of  work  in  the  Philippines  to 
the  broader  and  more  powerful  field  of  general  supervision 
of  Philippine  affairs  in  the  War  Department,  he  probably 
would  have  declined  the  appointment  and  begged  to  be 
left  where  he  was,  but  the  change  was  not  to  take  place  for 
a  year  and  he  knew  that  as  soon  as  he  had  settled  the  Friars' 
question  and  a  few  other  matters  of  importance  in  the  Is- 
lands he  could  be  of  more  use  to  the  Filipino  people  in 
Washington  than  he  could  in  Manila.  General  Wright 
was  to  succeed  him,  with  Mr.  Ide  and  Judge  Smith,  both 
trained  men,  in  line  of  succession  to  follow  General  Wright, 
so  with  the  promise  of  a  few  months  in  which  to  close  up 
the  affairs  in  which  he  was  most  deeply  engrossed,  he  ac- 
cepted the  Cabinet  office. 

Shortly  before  we  left  Manila  to  take  up  our  residence  in 
Washington  we  decided  to  give  a  final  and  memorable 
entertainment.  We  wanted  it  to  be  something  original, 
so  we  discussed  it  and  pondered  over  it  at  great  length. 
We  thought  we  had  given  every  kind  of  party  that  inge- 
nuity could  devise  during  our  residence  at  Malacanan,  but 
one  evening,  sitting  out  on  the  verandah  looking  across  the 
still,  softly-lapping  river  at  the  low-hung  lights  on  the  op- 
posite bank,  it  suddenly  occurred  to  me  that  we  had  an  ideal 
setting  for  a  Venetian  Carnival,  and  a  Venetian  Carnival 
was  settled  upon  without  further  ado.  It  was  to  be  a 
masked  ball,  the  front  gates  of  the  Palace  grounds  were  to 
be  closed  and  everybody  was  to  come  by  boat  to  the  river 
landing  on  the  verandah  below. 

As  soon  as  this  plan  was  noised  abroad  the  town  was 
agog  with  excitement.  The  first  question,  of  course,  to 
occur  to  everybody  was:  "What  shall  I  go  as?"  And 
pretty  soon  every  woman  in  town,  and  many  men,  assumed 
that  labouredly  innocent  air  peculiar  to  a  period  of  prepara- 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

tion  for  a  masked  ball  in  a  community  where  everybody 
knows  or  wants  to  know  all  about  everybody  else. 

I  knew  right  away  what  I  should  "go  as."  I  would  be 
a  Venetian  lady  of  romance  days.  But  the  question  of  Mr. 
Taft's  costume  was  not  so  easily  settled.  If  he  hadn't 
interposed  so  many  ideas  of  his  own  it  would  have  been 
much  simpler.  In  writing  to  his  brother  Charles  he  says: 
"It  is  a  humiliating  fact  to  me  that  every  suggestion  of  a 
character  for  me  by  me  has  been  summarily  rejected  by 
Nellie  unless  it  involved  the  wearing  of  a  gown  of  such 
voluminous  proportions  as  to  conceal  my  Apollo-like  form 
completely.  The  proposal  that  I  assume  the  character  of 
an  Igorrote  chieftain  because  of  the  slight  drain  on  capital 
and  our  costuming  resources  did  not  meet  with  favour.  So 
it  is  settled  that  I  must  assume  the  robes  and  headgear  of 
the  husband  of  the  Adriatic,  the  Doge  of  Venice.  The 
question  is  whether  the  robe  can  be  made  historically  accu- 
rate and  at  the  same  time  so  conceal  my  nether  extremities 
as  to  make  it  unnecessary  for  me  to  dye  my  nether  under- 
garments to  a  proper  colour,  for  the  entire  Orient  cannot 
produce  tights  of  a  sufficient  size.  The  Council  of  War, 
meaning  Nellie,  has  not  advised  me  on  the  subject,  but 
tights  or  no  tights  we  shall  have  a  Doge  of  Venice  'that  never 
was  on  land  or  sea.'  "  And  we  did. 

We  called  a  committee  of  Filipinos  to  arrange  about 
illuminations  on  the  river  and  the  decoration  of  launches, 
cascoes,  bancas,  rafts  and  barges,  and  this  committee  took 
the  whole  matter  out  of  my  hands  and  went  to  work  with 
the  zeal  of  children  playing  at  some  fascinating  new 
game.  They  arranged  for  a  number  of  pavilioned  craft 
decorated  with  flowers,  and  offered  a  prize  for  the  most 
beautiful  and  elaborate  private  launch,  or  boat  of  any  kind. 
Then  on  either  bank  of  the  river  they  stretched  lines  of 
coloured  electric  lights  and  crossed  the  river  at  close  intervals 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

with  other  lines  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see  in  both  direc- 
tions. The  whole  Palace  building  was  outlined  in  elec- 
tric lights,  while  the  great  trees  and  every  little  bush  were 
wired  and  strung  with  a  myriad  multicoloured  globes, 
hundreds  of  them  covered  with  Japanese  lanterns  in  fantas- 
tic colours  and  designs.  All  the  garden  walks  and  drives 
were  bordered  with  tiny  coloured  lamps  burning  cocoanut 
oil,  set  close  in  against  the  well  trimmed  lawns,  and  when 
it  was  all  finished  and  the  light  turned  on  the  place  was 
like  a  fairyland. 

The  date  for  the  Carnival  was  set  for  full  moon  night, 
the  third  of  December,  and  never  will  I  forget  the  brilliance 
and  beauty  of  the  scene  as  one  gay  and  picturesque  barge 
or  improvised  gondola  after  another,  full  of  laughing,  chat- 
tering and  singing  people  in  masks  and  all  manner  of  strange 
costumes,  and  with  mandolins  and  guitars  playing,  floated 
up  under  the  bright  canopy  of  swinging  globes,  a  million 
times  reflected  in  the  ripples  of  the  river,  to  the  ancient- 
looking,  moss-grown  landing  where  Mr.  Taft  and  I,  as  the 
Doge  of  Venice  and  his  Lady,  stood  receiving  our  guests 
with  as  much  mock  stateliness  as  we  could  command  in  the 
midst  of  such  a  merry  throng.  It  will  linger  in  my  memory 
always  as  one  of  the  most  entrancing  evenings  of  my  life. 

Rain  was  predicted,  as  usually  happens  when  I  give  any 
kind  of  a  garden  party,  and  all  day  long  I  had  watched  the 
clouds  with  a  feeling  of  helpless  exasperation.  I  wanted 
fair  weather;  I  wanted  the  moonlight;  but  as  night  came  on 
the  lowering  grey  canopy  seemed  to  float  upward  and 
spread  itself  out  into  a  mere  haze  which  softened  and  dif- 
fused the  brightness  and  made  ten  times  more  effective  our 
myriad  swinging  lamps  and  lanterns. 

Everybody  had  done  his  or  her  utmost  in  the  matter  of 
costuming,  and  with  a  success  that  I  never  saw  surpassed. 
All  the  fine  old  collections  of  jewels  in  the  rich  Spanish  and 
Filipino  families  were  taken  out,  and  in  many  cases  made 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

over  into  special  designs  to  deck  oriental  princesses,  his- 
toric queens  and  noble  ladies  of  storied  fame. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  costume  of  all  was  worn  by 
Mrs.  Rafael  Reyes,  a  tall  dark  Spanish  lady  of  extraordi- 
nary beauty,  the  wife  of  a  prominent  and  wealthy  Filipino. 
Senora  Reyes  came  as  the  Queen  of  Night,  and  she  was 
literally  ablaze  with  diamonds.  Not  brilliants  nor  rhine- 
s tones,  but  diamonds  large  and  small,  sewn  all  over  the 
long  graceful  folds  of  her  sweeping  black  robe  to  represent 
stars.  On  her  small  shapely  head,  crowned  with  a  wealth 
of  shining  black  hair,  she  wore  a  large  diamond  crescent. 
She  caught  the  light  and  sparkled,  her  vivacious  personality 
sparkling  with  her  jewels.  On  that  memorable  occasion 
nobody  who  saw  her  could  possibly  forget  her. 

Dancing  and  frolicking  continued  long  into  the  night, 
but  as  the  evening  wore  to  a  close  we  began  to  feel  a  sense 
of  depression.  In  a  very  few  days  we  were  to  leave  the 
Islands  perhaps  never  to  return,  and  this  was  our  last  party 
at  old  Malacanan.  It  is  not  amiss,  I  am  sure,  to  say  that 
every  laughing  face  sobered  and  every  voice  took  on  a 
regretful  tone  as  one  by  one  our  guests  came  up  to  say  good 
night — and  good-bye. 


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CHAPTER  XIII 

SECRETARY    OF    WAR 

To  illustrate  what  seems  to  me  to  be  rather  widely  con- 
trasted views  of  the  position  of  Secretary  of  War  for  the 
United  States,  I  think  I  must  relate  two  experiences  I  had 
in  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Taf  t's  career  in  that  office. 

Before  we  left  Manila  his  appointment  had  been  an- 
nounced and  as  we  passed  through  Japan  en  route  to  Wash- 
ington we  were  received  with  all  the  ceremony  and  official 
dignity  that  the  Japanese  naturally  would  consider  proper 
to  the  entertainment  of  the  War  Minister  of  a  great  and 
friendly  foreign  power.  This  was  experience  number  one. 

It  was  just  before  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  between 
Russia  and  Japan,  and  General  Kuropotkin,  the  Russian 
Minister  of  War,  had  very  recently  been  in  Tokyo  and  had 
been  accorded  a  welcome  so  elaborate  that  it  became  historic. 
It  satisfied  the  Japanese  conception  of  courtesy  to  an  exalted 
foreign  visitor  and  we  discovered  that  it  was  to  serve  as 
a  model  for  our  own  reception,  though  our  time  was  so 
short  that  the  programme  had  to  be  considerably  modified. 

Had  we  remained  with  our  ship  to  Yokohama  there  would 
have  been  no  opportunity  to  entertain  us  at  all,  but  a 
special  train  was  sent  to  meet  us  at  Nagasaki,  the  first  port 
of  call  on  the  homeward  voyage,  and  nearly  the  whole 
length  of  the  Empire  from  Tokyo,  and  we  were  whisked 
through  ahead  of  everything  two  or  three  days  in  advance 
of  our  ship,  which  had  to  make  two  more  stops  before  pro- 
ceeding to  Yokohama. 

We  were  the  guests  of  the  nation  and  were  conducted 
from  one  function  to  another  with  the  greatest  honour  and 
official  formality.  Among  other  arrangements  made  for 
our  entertainment  was  a  luncheon  at  the  Palace  with  the 
Emperor  and  Empress,  and  Mr.  Taft  was  permitted,  in  his 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

capacity  of  a  war  secretary,  to  witness  the  evolutions  of  a 
crack  Japanese  regiment,  of  3,000  troops  ready  for  the  field 
massed  on  a  single  great  parade  ground. 

The  Japanese  Minister  of  War,  General  Terauchi,  was 
a  soldier — which  seems  fitting,  and  which  is  usual  in  most 
countries  I  believe — and  he  assumed  at  once,  in  common 
with  all  the  other  Army  officers  whom  he  encountered,  that 
Mr.  Taft  was  a  soldier,  too.  This  has  nothing  to  do  with 
my  immediate  story,  but  I  remember  it  as  one  of  the  most 
amusing  circumstances  of  that  visit  to  Japan.  Whatever 
Mr.  Taft  may  be  he  is  not  martial,  but  these  Japanese  war- 
riors proceeded  to  credit  him  with  all  manner  of  special 
knowledge  which  he  had  never  had  an  opportunity  to  acquire 
and  to  speak  to  him  in  technical  terms  which,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted, strained  his  ability  for  concealing  his  ignorance.  He 
finally  said  that  if  anybody  asked  him  again  about  the 
muzzle  velocity  of  a  Krag-Jorgensen,  or  any  like  question, 
he  intended  to  reply:  "Sh!  It's  a  secret!" 

General  Kodama,  who  afterward  made  himself  world- 
famous  as  Chief  of  Staff  during  the  Russo-Japanese  War, 
had  been  Military  Governor  of  Formosa  and  he  was 
especially  interested  in  Mr.  Taft  because  he  conceived  that  in 
the  Philippines  we  had  a  parallel  for  their  Formosan  prob- 
lem. He  grew  quite  confidential,  telling  Mr.  Taft  many 
things  about  the  Japanese  administration  of  Formosan  af- 
fairs and  drawing  comparisons  between  his  difficulties  and 
those  that  we  had  encountered  under  similar  circumstances. 
He  ended  by  saying : 

"We  had  to  kill  a  good  many  thousands  of  those  people 
before  they  would  be  good.  But  then,  of  course,  you  under- 
stand,— you  know, — you  know !" 

This  story  could  not  have  been  told  at  that  time  because 
there  were  groups  of  active  anti-Imperialists  in  the  United 
States  who  would  have  pounced  upon  it  as  something  to  be 
made  the  most  of  as  an  argument  for  their  cause,  but  in  the 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  [YEARS 

light  of  history  that  has  been  made  I  think  it  is  safe  to  tell 
it  now.  Mr.  Taf t  had  to  admit  that  he  was  a  man  of  peace, 
that  so  far  as  he  personally  was  concerned  he  had  never  killed 
nor  ordered  killed  a  single  Filipino  in  his  life,  and  that  his 
whole  endeavour  had  been  to  form  a  friendly  alliance  with 
the  Philippine  people  and  to  dissuade  them  from  indulgence 
in  the  personal  danger  involved  in  their  useless  opposition  to 
temporary  American  control. 

We  made  something  of  a  triumphal  progress  through 
Japan  during  our  short  stay  and  were  escorted  to  our  ship 
by  numerous  dignitaries  who  were  extremely  gracious  and 
who  cheered  us  on  our  way  with  such  "banzais !"  and  such  a 
waving  of  flags  as  made  me  feel  that  we  were  quite  important 
personages.  Later  on  I  had  my  sense  of  the  importance  of 
my  position  rudely  shaken.  There  is  one  thing  to  be  said 
for  the  American  Republic  and  that  is  that  no  public  official 
is  permitted  to  retain  for  very  long  a  too  exalted  opinion  of 
himself. 

One  day  shortly  after  my  arrival  in  Washington,  I  was 
at  tea  at  the  house  of  a  friend  and  found  myself  in  conversa- 
tion with  a  lady,  the  wife  of  an  Army  officer,  whom  I  had 
known  in  Manila.  We  talked  around  and  about  various 
subjects,  after  the  manner  of  ladies  at  a  tea,  when  she  finally 
said  to  me : 

"You  know,  Mrs.  Taft,  I  have  thought  about  you  so 
often  and  wondered  how  you  liked  it  here  in  Washington 
after  your  life  in  Manila.  Why,  out  there  you  were  really 
a  queen,  and  you  come  back  here  and  are  just  nobody!" 

There  was  another  lady  who  sat  next  to  my  husband  at  a 
dinner  one  night.  It  was  a  place  of  honour,  next  to  a  Cabinet 
officer,  and  she  no  doubt  considered  it  necessary  to  "make 
conversation"  while  the  candle-lights  shone.  She  went 
along  quite  successfully  for  awhile,  but  eventually  blundered 
into  this: 

"Do  you  know,  Mr.  Secretary,  I  really  think  you  ought  to 

276 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

go  out  and  see  the  Philippine  Islands.     They  say  they  are 
so  interesting!" 

Poor  man,  most  of  his  reputation,  such  as  it  then  was,  had 
been  made  in  the  Philippine  service,  but  he  replied  to  her: 

"That's  right,  I  should  go.  And  I'm  going,  too,  just  as 
soon  as  I  can  possibly  get  away." 

He  meant  that.  He  had  promised  the  Filipinos  that  he 
would  return  to  open  their  first  Assembly,  and  even  then  he 
had  a  fixed  desire  to  lead  a  party  of  American  Congressmen 
to  the  country  whose  affairs  they  were  endeavouring  to  settle 
by  long-distance  legislation  founded  upon  very  mixed  and, 
in  some  cases,  greatly  distorted,  second-hand  information. 

Mr.  Taft  became  Secretary  of  War  at  the  beginning  of 
1904,  but  I  spent  the  remainder  of  the  winter  after  our 
arrival  in  the  United  States  in  Santa  Barbara  and  did  not 
join  him  until  May,  when  I  met  him  at  St.  Louis,  where  he 
went  to  open  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposition. 

President  Roosevelt  was  to  have  done  this,  but  urgent 
affairs  kept  him  in  Washington,  so  the  Secretary  of  War 
was  asked  to  represent  him  and  to  make  the  speech  which  an- 
nounced to  the  world  the  inauguration  of  this  great  Fair. 
I  remember  the  occasion  especially  because  I  had  been  so 
long  out  of  touch  with  the  kind  of  buoyant  Americanism 
which  made  itself  felt  in  St.  Louis  that  I  had  almost  lost  my 
own  identity  with  it,  and  I  began  then  to  think  that  it  was 
really  good  to  be  back  in  my  own  country. 

I  knew  fairly  well  what  it  would  mean  to  settle  down  in 
Washington  as  the  wife  of  a  Cabinet  officer  because  I  had 
lived  in  Washington  before.  While  I  didn't  expect  to  be 
and  didn't  expect  anybody  to  consider  me  "just  nobody"  I 
knew  that  it  would  not  be  at  all  like  entering  upon  the  duties 
and  privileges  of  the  wife  of  the  Governor  of  the  Philippine 
Islands.  I  thought  what  a  curious  and  peculiarly  American 
sort  of  promotion  it  was  which  carried  with  it  such  dimin- 
ished advantages. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

My  first  necessity  in  my  generally  considered  enviable 
position  was  to  find  a  house  in  Washington  large  enough 
to  contain  my  family,  to  permit  such  participation  in  social 
life  as  would  be  expected  of  us,  and  the  rent  for  which  would 
not  wholly  exhaust  the  stipend  then  allowed  to  a  Cabinet 
officer. 

Eight  thousand  dollars  a  year,  sufficient  income  though  it 
may  be  when  it  is  expected  to  accommodate  itself  to  an 
ordinary  eight-thousand-dollars-a-year  standard  of  living, 
shrinks  alarmingly  when  its  recipient  is  expected  to  maintain 
on  it  the  dignity  of  a  Cabinet  position.  If  we  had  not  had 
some  private  resources  I  don't  quite  see  how  we  could  have 
managed.  Fortunately  for  my  husband,  and  more  so  for  his 
successors  in  office,  this  figure  was  raised  to  twelve  thousand 
before  he  left  the  War  Department,  and  still  there  are  com- 
plaints which  I  am  amply  able  to  appreciate. 

We  finally  settled,  on  the  first  of  October  after  my  arrival 
at  Washington,  in  a  pleasant,  old-fashioned  house  on  K 
Street  near  l6th.  It  was  not  the  most  elegantly  equipped 
house  available,  but  we  preferred  a  little  extra  space  to  the 
more  elaborate  modern  conveniences,  so  we  took  it. 

We  were  spared  one  item  of  expense  by  having  the  use 
of  the  War  Department  carriage  and  its  big  Irish  coachman, 
Quade.  Quade  was  quite  a  character.  He  had  been  at 
one  time  in  the  artillery  service  and  had  occupied  the  po- 
sition in  which  we  found  him  through  several  administra- 
tions. He  was  never  able  to  lose  the  habits  and  manners  of 
an  artillery  man,  and  Mr.  Roosevelt  used  to  say  he  never 
drove  behind  him  without  feeling  as  if  he  were  on  the  caisson 
of  a  gun  wagon  going  into  action.  He  kept  his  horses  in 
fine  condition,  though  a  trifle  too  fat  perhaps,  and  he  took 
great  pride  in  the  speed  he  could  get  out  of  them.  He  would 
swing  around  corners  and  dash  past  street  cars  and  other 
vehicles  in  a  way  that  was  anything  but  soothing  to  sensitive 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

nerves,  but  there  was  no  use  protesting.  Quade's  character 
was  fully  formed. 

He  used  to  feed  Mr.  Taft's  private  riding  horse  at  the 
public  expense,  and  Mr.  Taft  didn't  approve  of  this.  He 
thought  he  ought  to  include  the  pay  for  its  keep  in  his  per- 
sonal accounts,  and  he  told  Quade  so,  asking  him  at  the  same 
time  to  have  a  bill  made  out  so  that  he  might  settle  it. 
Quade  regarded  him  in  utter  disgust  for  a  moment,  then  said : 

"Well,  Misther  Sicretary,  what  with  the  good  an*  plinty 
o'  fodder  we  got  in  the  stables,  I  guess  ye  can  go  on  a-feedin' 
your  horse  here  without  the  Government's  a-worryin'  anny." 

I  remember  going  one  day  to  a  reception  at  the  house  of 
Justice  Harlan  on  the  occasion  of  his  twenty-fifth  anni- 
versary on  the  bench.  President  Roosevelt  was  already 
there  and  as  we  drove  up  we  found  the  bicycle  policemen 
surrounding  the  entrance  waiting  for  him.  Quade,  with 
great  friendliness  but  with  an  absolute  lack  of  decorum, 
leaned  over  on  the  box  and  shouted  to  them  as  we  passed: 

"Ah,  Begorra!  Ye'll  be  a-waitin'  around  fer  my  boss 
one  o'  these  days!" 

Faithful  Quade  lived  to  see  his  prophecy  fulfilled,  but  not 
long  afterward  he  lost  his  life  at  his  post  of  duty  in  a  shock- 
ing accident.  He  was  driving  the  Department  carriage  for 
Secretary  of  War  Dickinson's  family;  the  pole  broke,  the 
horses  became  frightened  and  bolted.  There  were  young 
children  and  a  nurse  in  the  carriage,  so  Quade  bravely  held 
on  to  the  reins  and  finally  succeeded  in  turning  the  horses 
into  a  fence.  He  saved  the  occupants  of  the  carriage  from 
injury,  but  he  himself  was  thrown  forward  violently,  falling 
in  such  a  way  as  to  break  his  neck. 

Another  War  department  employe  whom  we  valued 
highly  was  Arthur  Brooks,  a  coloured  department  messenger, 
and  a  major  of  militia.  Arthur  was  the  most  useful  indi- 
vidual I  ever  knew  anything  about,  combining  absolute  loy- 

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alty  with  an  efficiency  and  accuracy  that  were  most  comfort- 
ing to  his  employers.  He  went  into  the  War  Department 
during  President  Arthur's  administration  and  gradually  won 
for  himself  a  position  of  especial  trust.  Mr.  Root,  as  Sec- 
retary of  War,  found  Arthur  most  valuable  and  reposed  the 
utmost  confidence  in  him. 

For  me  he  did  all  kinds  of  things  which  without  him  would 
probably  have  been  done  very  badly.  He  "managed"  all 
my  larger  entertainments,  being  present,  after  I  had  done  all 
I  could  by  way  of  preparation,  to  see  that  everybody  was 
properly  received,  that  the  service  ran  smoothly  and  that 
nothing  went  amiss.  When  Mr.  Taft  became  President  he 
had  Arthur  transferred  to  the  position  of  custodian  of  the 
White  House  and  I  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of  him  in 
that  capacity  later  on. 

Taking  things  all  in  all,  I  think  we  managed  to  get  on 
very  well  indeed,  though  I  did  sometimes  sigh  for  the  lux- 
urious simplicity  and  the  entire  freedom  from  petty  house- 
hold details  that  I  had  left  behind  me  in  Manila.  I  did  not 
find  that  my  very  large  and  very  black  cook  was  so  capable 
as  to  make  me  forget  the  excellencies  and  the  almost  sound- 
less orderliness  of  Ah  Sing;  nor  did  my  coloured  butler  and 
one  housemaid  quite  manage  to  take  the  places  of  Ah  King 
and  Chang,  my  two  upstairs  "Chinaboys"  at  Malacarian. 
As  for  the  six  or  eight  barefoot  muchachos  who  "skated"  my 
Philippine  hardwood  floors  to  a  state  of  mirror  gloss  and 
kept  everything  speckless  without  ever  seeming  to  do  any 
work  at  all,  they  could  have  no  substitute  in  a  Washington 
establishment. 

The  life  of  a  "Cabinet  lady"  newly  arrived  in  the  Capital 
is  one  of  rather  monotonous  stress.  In  the  first  place  she  is 
expected  to  call  on  nearly  everybody  who  calls  on  her,  and,  of 
course,  nearly  everybody  does  that.  This  custom  in  my 
time  was  especially  insisted  upon  with  regard  to  the  wives  of 
all  the  Congressmen  and  of  all  the  men  connected  with  the 

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various  departments.  Then  there  were  the  wives  of  the 
members  of  the  Supreme  Court,  women  whose  husbands  were 
connected  with  the  many  different  bureaus  and  a  large  and 
most  attractive  civilian  society  which  contributes  so  much  to 
the  gaiety  of  the  city.  And  besides  all  these  there  were  the 
Army  women,  any  number  of  them. 

Every  afternoon  throughout  the  winter  when  I  was  not 
"at  home"  myself  I  started  out  on  certain  rounds  of  calls, 
and  I  think  I  made  as  many  calls  as  any  one  I  knew.  Irk- 
some to  me  as  this  duty  sometimes  was,  in  the  formal  dis- 
charge of  it  I  made  some  of  the  pleasantest  friends  I  ever 
had.  I  have  always  found  Army  women  particularly  de- 
lightful, and  it  is  easy  to  understand  why  they  are  so.  In 
the  course  of  their  wanderings  and  their  many  changes  of 
habitation,  and  in  consequence  of  the  happy-go-lucky  at- 
titude toward  life  that  they  are  bound  to  assume,  they  ac- 
quire a  cordiality  of  manner  and  an  all-round  generous  tone 
which  make  them  very  attractive. 

One  morning  each  week  Mrs.  Roosevelt  held  a  meeting  of 
the  Cabinet  ladies  at  the  White  House,  but  this  was  not  a 
social  affair.  We  met  to  discuss  various  matters  supposed 
to  be  of  interest  to  us  all,  and  would  gather  in  the  library 
from  eleven  to  twelve  for  this  purpose. 

After  calling,  the  most  important  social  duty  devolving 
upon  a  Cabinet  officer's  wife  is  dining  out.  We  always 
dined  out  when  we  were  not  giving  a  dinner  party  at  our 
own  house,  so  that  from  the  time  Mr.  Taft  became  Secre- 
tary of  War  we  almost  ceased  to  know  what  it  was  to  have 
"a  quiet  evening  at  home."  Of  course  such  a  life  gave  us 
an  opportunity  for  meeting  many  interesting  men  and  women 
who  contributed  much  to  the  sum  total  of  what  the  world 
seemed  to  have  in  store  for  us. 

It  has  been  the  custom  through  a  good  many  administra- 
tions for  the  President,  sometime  during  the  season  between 
December  first  and  Lent,  to  dine  with  each  member  of  the 

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Cabinet,  and  all  other  members  of  the  Cabinet,  with  only  a 
few  outside  guests,  were  usually  invited  to  these  parties. 
It  can  easily  be  imagined  that  they  did  not  offer  much  varia- 
tion, especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  hard  and  fast  rules 
of  precedence  settled  for  the  hostess  just  where  each  of  her 
guests  should  sit.  Mr.  Roosevelt  did  not  care  for  this  cus- 
tom, so  during  his  last  Administration  it  became  usual  to 
ask  to  such  dinners  only  people  outside  the  "official  family," 
as  it  is  called.  The  dinner  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  which 
we  gave  each  year  was  our  most  ambitious  social  function 
and  it  was  my  desire  always  to  invite  as  many  persons  as 
possible  who  would  themselves  prove  entertaining  and  who 
would  not  be  likely  to  meet  the  President  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  events.  I  often  asked  friends  from  different  parts 
of  the  country  to  visit  us  for  the  occasion. 

Every  Wednesday  afternoon  all  the  ladies  of  the  Cabinet 
were  "at  home"  and  nearly  all  Washington  called  on  each 
of  them.  Then,  too,  the  casual  visitors  to  the  Capital  were 
free  to  attend  these  informal  receptions  and  I  used  to  be 
surprised  at  the  number  of  curious  strangers  who  found  their 
way  into  my  drawing  room. 

However,  this  is  only  a  glimpse  in  general  of  the  life  of 
a  Cabinet  lady  during  the  regular  social  season.  Fortu- 
nately for  me  my  husband  was,  from  the  very  beginning,  a 
travelling  Secretary.  I  remember  most  of  the  cartoons  of 
those  days  pictured  him  either  as  "sitting  on  the  lid," 
wreathed  in  cherubic  smiles,  while  President  Roosevelt 
rushed  off  on  some  flying  trip,  or  as  himself  making  a  frantic 
dash  for  the  rear  platform  of  a  moving  train.  The  rush  of 
Mr.  Roosevelt  was  always  expressed  by  the  backward  sweep 
of  the  ribbon  attached  to  his  eyeglasses,  while  Mr.  Taft  was 
usually  pictured  with  a  perspiring  look,  his  hat  lifted  off  his 
head  by  the  wind  and  a  busy  looking  suitcase,  labelled  in 
large  letters:  "Taft,"  swinging  wildly  along  behind  him. 

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And  these  cartoons  were  rather  accurately  descriptive  of  real 
conditions. 

I  had  hardly  got  my  house  on  K  Street  in  order  before 
something  happened  in  Panama  which  made  it  imperative 
for  the  Secretary  of  War  to  go  down  to  the  Isthmus  and 
give  the  situation  his  personal  attention.  There  was  a  state 
of  popular  discontent  among  the  Panamanians  complicated 
by  question  of  zone  boundaries,  jurisdiction,  postal  regula- 
tions, tariff  inequalities  and  a  few  other  matters,  and  by 
that  time  we  had  too  much  at  stake  in  the  Canal  Zone  to 
risk  long  distance  or  dilatory  regulation. 

The  building  of  the  Panama  Canal  was  not  included  in 
the  business  of  the  War  Department  until  after  Mr.  Taft 
became  Secretary,  nor  was  there  at  that  time  any  definite 
idea  of  having  it  done  by  the  Army  Engineer  Corps,  but  it 
has  long  been  recognised  that  in  the  War  Portfolio  accom- 
modation can  be  found  for  any  and  every  kind  of  govern- 
mental problem,  and  Mr.  Taft  had  not  been  Secretary  long 
before  Mr.  Roosevelt  transferred  the  administration  of 
Canal  Zone  affairs  to  his  already  well-laden  shoulders. 

I  was  very  glad  to  have  an  opportunity  to  see  the  begin- 
ning of  what  I  knew  was  to  be  the  greatest  enterprise  ever 
undertaken  by  the  United  States,  so  I  fully  approved  of 
my  husband's  suggestion  that  I  accompany  him  to  Panama. 
Senor  Obaldia,  the  Panamanian  Minister  to  Washington, 
went  also,  and  among  others  in  the  very  interesting  party 
were  Rear  Admiral  J.  G.  Walker,  President  of  the  Canal 
Commission,  Judge  Charles  G.  Magoon,  law  officer  of  the 
Commission,  and  Mr.  Nelson  W.  Cromwell,  counsel  for  the 
Republic  of  Panama. 

On  this  trip  Mr.  Taft  went  to  Panama  as  a  representative 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of 
presenting  to  the  President  of  Panama  a  message  of  friend- 
ship, and  to  make,  if  possible,  an  amicable  adjustment  of 

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the  differences  between  American  and  Panamanian  interests. 

It  was  in  November,  1904.  We  went  from  Washing- 
ton to  New  Orleans  and  were  greeted  in  a  kindly  manner 
all  along  the  way.  When  we  arrived  we  were  met  by  a 
most  imposing  committee  of  citizens  who  escorted  us  to  our 
hotel.  No  sooner  were  we  installed,  in  the  midst  of  all  the 
luxury  that  could  be  prepared  for  us,  than  Governor 
Blanchard,  with  due  ceremony  and  accompanied  by  mem- 
bers of  his  staff  in  uniform,  called  to  pay  his  official  respects. 
We  hadn't  very  long  to  stay,  but  every  hour  was  filled  with 
entertainments  made  memorable  by  the  courteous  and  high- 
bred lavishness  for  which  New  Orleans  is  famed,  the  only 
private  event  of  our  visit  being  a  dinner  with  Archbishop 
Chapelle,  now  dead,  who  was  Archbishop  of  Manila  when 
Mr.  Taft  first  went  to  the  Philippines  and  with  whom  he 
good-naturedly,  but  persistently,  disagreed  on  the  important 
problems  connected  with  the  necessary  disentanglement  of 
the  affairs  of  Church  and  State  in  the  Islands. 

We  sailed  on  the  little  Dolphin  from  New  Orleans  to 
Pensacola,  where  the  cruiser  Columbia  lay  waiting  to  take  us 
down  to  Panama,  and  it  was  to  the  boom  of  saluting  guns, 
the  cheers  of  hospitable  Pensacola  citizens  and  the  strains 
of  "The  Star  Spangled  Banner"  that  we  got  under  way  on 
this  first  memorable  trip  to  the  Canal  Zone. 

We  arrived  at  Colon  on  a  Sunday  morning,  and  I  remem- 
ber distinctly  that  it  seemed  more  like  "getting  home"  than 
like  getting  to  a  strange  place.  The  whole  atmosphere  and 
surroundings,  the  people,  the  language  they  spoke,  the 
houses  and  streets,  the  rank  earth  odours  and  the  very  feel 
of  the  air  reminded  me  so  strongly  of  the  Philippines  as  to 
give  me  immediately  a  delightful  sense  of  friendly  famil- 
iarity with  everything  and  everybody. 

We  were  met  at  Colon  by  the  vice-President  of  Panama, 
Senor  Arosemana,  and  a  number  of  other  Panamanian  offi- 
cials, by  General  Davis,  then  Governor  of  the  Canal  Zone, 

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and  by  Mr.  John  Barrett,  the  American  Minister  to  Panama. 
A  private  train  was  waiting  to  take  us  across  the  Isthmus  and 
we  lost  no  time  in  getting  started.  Our  visit  had  been 
"programmed"  almost  to  the  last  hour  of  our  time,  and  the 
first  event  was  to  be  an  exchange  of  formalities  between  the 
Secretary  of  War  and  the  President  of  Panama  that  very 
afternoon. 

When  we  got  to  the  city  of  Panama  just  before  luncheon 
we  went  to  the  home  of  Mr.  Wallace,  the  Chief  Engineer, 
whose  guests  we  were  to  be  during  our  stay,  and  early  in 
the  afternoon  Mr.  Taft,  accompanied  by  uniformed  aides 
and  other  Army  officers,  with  enough  ceremony  to  satisfy 
even  the  most  formal,  went  to  call  on  President  Amador. 
The  call  was  promptly  returned  with  due  formality,  and  the 
decks  were  then  considered  "cleared  for  action." 

Negotiations  began  at  once,  but  the  conferences  were 
private,  and  in  our  daily  round  of  sight-seeing  and  social 
diversions  it  did  not  seem  that  the  delicate  machinery  of 
diplomatic  transaction  was  in  motion  at  all. 

Our  Minister,  Mr.  Barrett,  had  a  charming  house  in  the 
old  tropic  city  and  on  the  Monday  evening  after  our  arrival 
he  gave  a  dinner  at  which  were  gathered  many  high  officials 
of  the  Panama  Republic  as  well  as  all  the  interesting  Amer- 
icans who  were  then  directing  our  great  Canal  building  en- 
terprise. Mr.  Barrett,  being  a  bachelor,  placed  President 
Amador  opposite  himself;  he  took  Madame  Amador  at  his 
right;  Mr.  Taft  sat  next  to  her,  while  I  occupied  the  place 
at  the  right  of  the  President  and  had  on  my  other  side  Senor 
Arias,  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  General  Davis,  Mr. 
Wallace,  Colonel  Gorgas — "the  man  of  the  hour"  during 
that  cleaning-up  period, — many  Army  officers  and  Cabinet 
Ministers  in  full  regalia  and  many  decorations,  with  their 
wives,  were  seated  in  order  of  rank  along  the  sides  of  the 
great  table,  which,  laden  with  flowers  and  gleaming  glass  and 
candles,  made  a  picture  long  to  be  remembered  even  by  one 

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whose  memory  is  overcrowded  with  dinner-party  scenes. 

The  formality  of  this  occasion,  however,  began  and  ended 
with  its  costuming  and  its  beautiful  tropic  "setting." 
Nearly  everybody,  including  the  President  and  Madame 
Amador,  spoke  English  as  well  as  Spanish,  and  the  evening 
was  gay  from  the  outset.  There  is  a  wonderful  fish  caught 
in  Panama  waters;  I  wish  I  could  remember  its  name;  it  is 
delicious  and  rare  beyond  description,  and  our  pleasantries 
began  with  the  President's  demand  for  a  second  helping 
which  the  embarrassed  host  and  the  more  than  flustered  serv- 
ants were  unable  to  supply.  The  persiflage  then  turned 
upon  the  unenviable  position  of  a  bachelor  diplomat  and 
we  all  advised  Mr.  Barrett  to  get  married.  He  parried  our 
jibes  as  best  he  could  until  President  Amador  volunteered 
the  information  that  the  American  Minister  was  honorary 
President  of  the  Iris  Club,  an  association  of  some  three 
hundred-odd  of  the  choicest  girls  in  Panama.  "And  he 
can't  get  one  out  of  the  lot,"  said  the  President. 

After  dinner  a  large  reception  was  held  in  the  salon  which, 
as  in  all  Spanish  houses  in  the  tropics,  was  on  what  might 
be  called  the  second  floor,  the  first  floor  being  only  a  sort  of 
plastered  and  stone-paved  street-level  basement.  The 
highly-polished  floor  of  the  big  room  didn't  look  to  me  to 
be  particularly  safe  and  I  suppose  Mr.  Barrett  observed  my 
worried  looks  as  it  "gave"  under  the  weight  of  my  husband. 
He  hastened  to  reassure  me  by  telling  me  that  he  had  taken 
the  precaution  to  have  it  shored  up  with  heavy  timbers  under 
the  spot  where  Mr.  Taft  was  to  stand  to  receive  the  long 
line  of  guests.  He  seemed  to  consider  this  a  fine  joke,  but  I 
thought  it  a  most  commendable  measure. 

When  we  arrived  in  Panama  we  were  not  at  all  certain 
that  we  should  find  the  country  in  a  state  of  tranquillity; 
nor  did  we  exactly;  though  by  prompt  action  the  President 
had  nipped  a  budding  revolution  only  a  short  time  before. 
Hostilities  had  been  averted,  but  the  people  were  in  a  bad 

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temper  and  it  was  thought  best  to  keep  them  "merely  guess- 
ing" while  the  negotiations  between  the  Secretary  of  War 
and  the  Panamanian  government  were  in  progress,  and  much 
of  Mr.  Taft's  time,  therefore,  was  spent  behind  the  closed 
doors  of  President  Amador's  council  chamber. 

In  the  meantime  I  made  myself  familiar  with  the  wonder- 
ful American  project  which  brought  the  Panama  Republic 
into  existence.  The  Canal  then  was  a  sorry  sight.  The 
public  clamour  in  the  United  States  was  for  "making  the 
dirt  fly,"  but  it  did  not  look  to  a  mere  layman  as  if  we  could 
ever  make  it  fly  fast  enough  or  in  sufficient  quantities  to 
really  bring  the  two  oceans  together.  All  along  the  line  of 
operations  the  old  French  machinery  lay  buried  in  pathetic 
ruin  in  a  tropic  jungle  which  had  all  but  effaced  the  evi- 
dences of  the  French  enterprise,  and  such  conditions  of  gen- 
eral unhealthiness  prevailed  as  made  it  seem  almost  too 
much  to  expect  that  any  kind  of  clean-up  programme  could 
be  made  effectual. 

But  all  that  story  has  been  told;  told  in  actual  accom- 
plishment with  which  all  the  world  is  familiar.  I  am  only 
glad  that  I  saw  Colonel  Gorgas  and  his  men  in  that  initial 
and  contagious  enthusiasm  which,  being  sustained,  resulted 
in  a  record  of  which  we  are  all  so  proud. 

The  Panamanians  are  nothing  if  not  expansively  hospit- 
able. On  the  4th  of  December,  after  we  had  been  on  the 
Isthmus  a  couple  of  weeks  and  while  the  results  of  the  offi- 
cial negotiations  were  still,  as  far  as  any  one  knew,  "in  the 
lap  of  the  gods,"  an  ocean  steamship  was  chartered  by  a 
company  of  hosts,  and  about  three  hundred  guests,  the  elite 
of  the  whole  republic,  were  invited  for  a  picnic  party  to  the 
Pearl  Islands  in  the  Bay  of  Panama,  and  a  sail  out  into  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  It  was  an  all-day  expedition  and  included 
the  exploration  of  the  beautiful  little  group,  some  pearl-div- 
ing for  our  especial  benefit,  a  most  amazing  luncheon,  and  a 
dance  on  deck,  to  the  music  of  a  stringed  band  in  gay  and 

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most  decorative  uniforms,  at  which  Mr.  Taft  made  a  tre- 
mendous "hit."  The  tiny  Panamanian  woman  who  first 
danced  with  him  was  thought  to  be  very  courageous,  but  as 
one  after  another  followed  suit  his  reputation  grew  and  it 
finally  was  conceded,  in  the  midst  of  great  merriment,  that 
he  was  as  light  of  foot  as  the  slimmest  Panamanian  of  them 
all. 

Having  always  been  used  to  my  husband's  dancing,  and 
knowing  how  much  he  likes  it,  I  never  thought  of  it  as  any- 
thing unusual,  but  during  the  days  when  he  was  being 
"boomed"  for  the  Presidency  and  was  therefore  much  in 
the  public  prints,  it  was  made  the  subject  of  frequent  jest. 
I  have  one  bit  of  doggerel  in  my  scrap-book  which  appeared 
in  the  Baltimore  American  after  the  reception  we  gave  on 
the  occasion  of  General  Kuroki's  visit  to  this  country,  and 
the  last  verse  of  which  runs : 

That  Taft  is  just  a  wonder 
Is  a  thing  which  we  all  know; 

That  as  Presidential  thunder 
His  big  boom  is  like  to  go. 

But  as  butterfly,  blooms  sipping, 
And  as  waltzer,  simply  ripping! 

JTis  a  sight  to  see  Taft  tripping 
.  On  the  light  fantastic  toe! 

As  a  matter  of  fact  he  dances  exceedingly  well,  if  his  wife 
who  has  been  dancing  with  him  for  the  past  thirty  years 
may  say  so. 

When  we  returned  from  the  Pearl  Islands  to  Panama  City 
that  evening  we  were  met  by  a  pleasing  surprise.  The  text 
of  the  agreement  which  had  been  reached  by  Mr.  Taft  and 
the  government  of  Panama,  and  which  had  not  been  men- 
tioned by  anybody  all  day,  had  been  made  public  during  our 
absence  and  newsboys  were  crying  "extras"  in  all  the  streets, 
while  excited  groups  stood  about  here  and  there  wreathed  in 
smiles  and  talking  with  great  animation.  Everybody 

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seemed  wholly  satisfied  and  wherever  we  went  we  were  met 
with  cheers  and  cries  of  "Viva!" 

The  keynote  sounded  in  this  agreement  was  that  justice 
should  be  done  at  Panama.  Mr.  Taf  t  interpreted  the  treaty 
between  our  country  and  the  infant  republic;  he  adjusted 
the  differences  with  regard  to  postal  regulations  and  the 
tariff;  he  defined  the  harbour  boundaries;  and,  much  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  Panamanians,  he  kept  within  the  hands 
of  the  American  authorities  all  matters  pertaining  to  the 
public  health.  The  people  realised  the  necessity  for  a 
pure  water  supply,  for  sewer  systems,  clean  and  well-paved 
streets,  and  the  elimination  of  the  dread  diseases  which  made 
the  Isthmus  a  death  trap  for  white  men,  and  all  these  things 
America  offered  to  Panama  as  a  free  gift  that  the  great 
work  of  building  the  Canal  might  go  on.  If  vociferous 
cheers  are  an  expression  of  gratitude  the  people  were  grate- 
ful. 

The  next  day  a  great  demonstration  took  place  in  Cathe- 
dral Plaza.  We  stood  on  a  balcony  of  the  Grand  Central 
Hotel,  on  one  side  of  the  square  and  opposite  the  Cathedral, 
and  looked  out  across  a  veritable  sea  of  moving,  swaying, 
white-clad  humanity.  As  far  as  one  could  see  in  every  di- 
rection there  were  people,  and  when  Mr.  Taft  stepped  to 
the  balcony  rail  to  address  them  they  gave  voice  to  a  cheer 
which  made  it  seem  certain  that  all  cause  for  quarrel  between 
us  had  happily  been  removed. 

There  had  been  vague  rumours  that  the  deposed  War 
Minister  of  the  Panama  government  who  had  attempted  to 
start  the  rebellion  would,  with  his  followers,  take  this  occa- 
sion to  make  a  hostile  demonstration,  but  he  was  evidently 
sensible  enough  to  realise  that  his  was  an  unpopular  cause. 
Moreover,  his  original  army  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  men 
had  been  reduced  to  twenty-five,  and  if  that  were  not  dis-» 
couraging  enough  he  had  only  to  contemplate  the  natty 
American  Marine  corps  in  the  Canal  Zone  and  the  Pacific 

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squadron,  including  the  New  York,  the  Boston,  the  Ben* 
nington  and  the  Marblehead,  lying  out  in  Panama  harbour 
unobtrusively  but  very  positively  guaranteeing  peace. 

Mr.  Taft  in  his  speech  to  the  Panamanians  was  earnest. 
He  was  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  conquest  as  represented  in 
our  Panama  Canal  enterprise.  It  was  to  be  a  conquest  of 
nature's  own  forces  in  their  most  formidable  aspects  and 
he  expressed  a  determination  to  enforce,  during  his  term  of 
administration,  the  laws  necessary  to  make  that  conquest 
possible,  and  capping  all  his  promises  of  fair  treatment  to 
the  people  of  Panama,  he  emphasised  an  insistence  upon 
orderly  government  in  the  little  republic  which  brought  forth 
round  after  round  of  applause. 

He  was  destined  to  have  almost  endless  difficulties  of 
various  sorts  in  the  Canal  Zone,  but  he  had  the  great 
privilege  of  occupying  an  administrative  office,  first  as  Sec- 
retary of  War  and  then  as  President,  until  the  end  of  the 
work  was  in  sight  and  all  the  problems  had  been  fully  solved. 
During  those  eight  years,  wherever  he  might  be  or  whatever 
business  happened  to  be  temporarily  paramount,  Canal  ques- 
tions were  with  him  always  and  were  always  given  first  con- 
sideration. 

The  history  of  the  Panama  Canal  is  divided  into  two 
great  periods.  The  first  covers  the  full  discussion  and 
final  settlement  of  the  question  as  to  which  route  should  be 
adopted,  the  Nicaraguan  or  the  Panama;  the  negotiation  of 
the  Hay-Herran  Treaty  with  Colombia,  by  which  we  were 
given  the  right  to  complete  the  Panama  Canal,  and  under 
which  we  secured  all  the  rights  of  the  French  Panama  Canal 
Company;  the  rejection  of  the  Hay-Herran  Treaty  with 
Colombia;  the  revolution  of  Panama;  the  establishment  of 
the  Panamanian  Republic  and  its  recognition  by  President 
Roosevelt,  the  negotiation  of  the  Hay-Varilla  Treaty  with 
Panama,  by  which  we  acquired  dominion  over  the  Canal 
Zone,  and  the  right  to  build  the  Canal  from  the  Republic  of 

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MR.    TAFT   AND   COLONEL  GOETHALS,    IN    PANAMA 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Panama,  guaranteeing  at  the  same  time  the  integrity  of  that 
Republic.  During  all  this  period  Mr.  Taft  was  in  the 
Philippines.  In  February,  1904,  when  he  became  Secretary 
of  War,  the  Hay-Varilla  Treaty  was  pending  in  the  Senate. 
In  a  few  weeks  thereafter,  it  was  consented  to  by  the  Senate, 
the  Panama  Commission  was  appointed,  and  early  that 
spring  the  second  period  of  the  construction  of  the  Canal 
began.  The  work  was  placed  by  the  President  under  Mr. 
Taft  as  Secretary  of  War.  From  that  time  until  his  retire- 
ment from  the  office  of  President,  March  4,  1913,  the  con- 
struction was  constantly  under  his  supervision.  Sometime 
this  history  must  be  written.  The  chief  crises  in  this  work 
as  he  has  recited  them  were  the  organisation  of  the  force  un- 
der the  Commission,  the  adjustment  of  the  relations  of  Pan- 
ama to  the  work  under  the  treaty,  the  change  of  engineers 
from  Mr.  Wallace  to  Mr.  Stevens,  the  consideration  by  an 
International  Commission,  with  a  divided  report,  as  to  the 
proper  type  of  the  Canal,  whether  sea  level  or  lock,  the  very 
close  fight  in  Congress  to  sustain  the  Administration  view  in 
favor  of  the  lock  type,  the  settlement  of  the  issue  whether  the 
Canal  should  be  built  by  contract  or  by  Government  agency, 
the  selection  of  a  successor  to  Mr.  Stevens  when  he  resigned, 
and  the  placing  of  the  work  under  Army  engineers  and  the 
selection  of  Colonel  Goethals  as  the  man  to  take  the  respon- 
sibility, the  adjustment  of  critical  labour  troubles,  and  the 
confirmation  by  a  Commission  of  the  security  of  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Gatun  Dam.  These  were  the  points  of  critical 
importance  in  Mr.  Taft's  Administration.  In  deciding  the 
questions  which  came  to  him,  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  visit 
the  Canal  seven  times  in  as  many  years,  and  I  went  with  him 
on  three  of  his  visits.  The  contrast  between  the  Canal  when 
we  first  visited  it  and  were  the  guests  of  Mr.  Wallace,  the 
first  engineer,  and  as  it  was  when  we  were  the  guests  of 
Colonel  Goethals  in  1912,  when  the  Gatun  Lake  was  more 
than  half  filled  and  nothing  but  the  slides  in  the  Culebra  Cut 

291 


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remained  for  excavation,  it  is  most  interesting  to  look  back 
upon.  I  was  twice  the  guest  of  Colonel  and  Mrs.  Goethals, 
and  the  beautiful  view  of  the  Canal  Valley  from  the  win- 
dows of  their  house  in  the  town  of  Culebra,  which  has  now 
disappeared,  will  long  remain  in  my  mind. 

It  was  not  long  after  our  return  to  Washington  from 
the  first  trip  to  Panama  before  arrangements  were  completed 
for  the  tour  of  the  big  Congressional  party  which  Mr.  Taft 
"personally  conducted"  to  the  Philippines  and  back,  and 
which  was  destined  to  be  slightly  overshadowed  as  a  Con- 
gressional party  by  the  personality  of  Miss  Alice  Roosevelt 
who,  under  the  chaperonage  of  Mr.  Taft  and  Mrs.  New- 
lands,  made  the  trip  just,  as  Kipling  sings,  "for  to  be'old 
and  for  to  see." 

Knowing  that  I  should  have  an  opportunity  to  go  again 
to  the  Far  East  in  two  years  to  be  present  at  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  first  Philippine  Assembly,  I  decided  to  remain 
behind  this  time.  I  did  not  think  I  would  much  enjoy  this 
brief  busy  trip  to  the  Orient  with  three  children  and  decided 
that  a  quiet  summer  in  England  would  be  better  for  us  all. 
So  I  took  a  cottage  in  Oxford  for  the  summer  and  with  my 
two  younger  children  and  one  of  my  Cincinnati  friends  and 
her  two  children  made  various  trips  here  and  there  and  found 
myself  most  pleasantly  entertained.  It  was  an  exceedingly 
quiet  summer,  unbroken  save  by  the  somewhat  lurid  accounts 
which  we  gathered  from  the  British  and  European  press  of 
the  progress  of  the  Congressional  party  with  Mr.  Taft  and 
Miss  Alice  Roosevelt  in  the  East.  One  German  paper  went 
so  far  as  to  announce  that  Miss  Roosevelt  was  undoubtedly 
engaged  to  be  married  to  her  father's  War  Secretary. 

It  was  my  intention  to  sail  from  Southampton  and  meet 
Mr.  Taft  in  New  York  on  his  arrival  from  the  East.  We 
had  been  inveighing  all  summer  against  the  British  system 
of  handling  luggage  and  when  we  went  to  look  after  our 
trunks  in  the  Oxford  station  we  were  charmed  to  find  that 

292 


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a  new  method  of  labelling  had  been  introduced  and  that 
our  luggage  would  travel  down  to  London  and  across  Lon- 
don to  the  station  for  Southampton  without  any  assistance 
from  us.  We  pocketed  our  British  substitutes  for  Ameri- 
can baggage  checks  with  considerable  satisfaction  and  started 
on  our  way. 

When  we  arrived  in  London  I  sent  the  boys  over  to  the 
station  from  which  we  were  to  leave  for  our  steamer  to 
make  sure  that  our  baggage  had  really  been  delivered  as 
promised.  Unfortunately  the  boys  got  to  the  station  just 
as  King  Edward  arrived,  and  they  were  so  excited  about 
getting  a  glimpse  of  the  monarch  that  they  gave  up  trying 
to  look  after  baggage.  We,  having  nothing  else  to  do, 
drove  to  the  station  a  full  hour  before  the  steamer  train 
was  to  leave,  and  had  occasion  to  congratulate  ourselves  for 
being  so  early.  Our  trunks  were  not  in  the  station.  My 
friend  jumped  in  a  hansom  and  rushed  to  the  station 
where  we  had  come  in.  I  spent  the  time  ransacking  every 
corner  and  looking  over  piles  of  all  kinds  of  luggage  and 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  passed  before  a  telephone  message 
came  to  say  the  trunks  were  found  and  that  they  had  started 
across  town. 

But  the  train  would  leave  in  five  minutes !  I  was  fran- 
tic. Otherwise  I  should  never  have  played  my  last  card 
and  exposed  myself  to  the  jibes  of  my  family  forever  after. 
I  rushed  into  the  office  of  the  station-master  determined  to 
overawe  him  by  revealing  to  him  my  official  position. 

"I  am  Mrs.  William  Howard  Taft  of  Washington,"  I 
cried.  "I  must  get  my  trunks  on  that  boat  train.  They'll 
be  here  in  a  few  minutes.  Can't  you  hold  it  for  me !" 

He  looked  at  me  blankly. 

"My  husband  is  the  Secretary  of  War  of  the  United 
States,"  I  went  on  desperately. 

"I  am  very  sorry,  Madam,"  he  began,  then  I  made  my  last 
effort. 

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"You  must  have  heard  of  him.  He's  travelling  now  with 
Miss  Alice  Roosevelt." 

At  last  I  had  produced  the  effect  I  desired.  Immediately 
the  station  was  my  castle.  The  station-master  was  my  hum- 
ble servant.  He  accompanied  me  out,  ordered  the  train  held, 
and  superintended  a  whole  obsequious  force  which  hustled 
our  baggage  aboard  as  soon  as  it  arrived.  Since  we  made 
the  boat,  which  we  would  not  otherwise  have  done,  I  was 
able  to  bear  the  chaffing  of  my  children  and  friends  when 
they  continued  to  refer  to  me  as  The  Mrs.  Taft  whose  hus- 
band was  travelling  with  Miss  Alice  Roosevelt. 

Early  in  the  autumn  of  1906  the  American  Consul  Gen- 
eral at  Havana  began  cabling  to  the  government  at  Wash- 
ington that  the  Cuban  republic  under  President  Palma  was 
rapidly  going  to  pieces.  What  was  described  as  "devastat- 
ing and  paralysing  civil  strife"  was  rampant,  and  a  serious 
insurrection  was  threatened. 

The  Constitution  of  the  Cuban  republic  and  the  Cuban 
Treaty  with  the  United  States  contains  a  "self-acting" 
clause,  known  as  the  Platt  Amendment,  which  was  intro- 
duced by  the  United  States  Congress,  and  which  provides  for 
American  intervention  in  Cuban  affairs  whenever  such  inter- 
vention is  deemed  requisite  to  a  continuance  of  peace  and 
good  government  in  the  island. 

Sometime  during  the  first  week  in  September  the  situation 
became  acute  and  President  Palma,  fearing  that  it  would 
become  formidable  and  knowing  that  he  had  no  adequate 
force  to  protect  life  and  property,  urgently,  though  secretly 
begged  our  government  to  send  warships  to  his  assistance. 
On  September  12  he  despatched  a  cablegram  imploring  that 
an  American  Army  be  landed  in  Havana  at  once  to  prevent 
a  threatened  massacre  of  citizens;  on  September  13  he  de- 
cided to  resign  the  Presidency  and  compel  the  United  States 
to  assume  the  responsibility  of  government;  on  September  14 
President  Roosevelt  called  a  conference  at  Oyster  Bay  where 

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it  was  decided  that  Mr.  Taft  should  undertake  the  task  of 
Cuban  pacification,  peaceful  if  possible — and  on  September 
20  Mr.  Taft,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Robert  Bacon,  Assistant 
Secretary  of  State,  as  a  fellow  Peace  Commissioner,  landed 
at  Havana.  They  didn't  lose  much  time. 

Then  began  what  Mr.  Taft  always  refers  to  as  "those 
awful  twenty  days."  The  people  were  divided  into  various 
warring  factions,  the  result,  largely,  of  political  habits  in- 
herited from  the  old  Spanish  regime  wherein  a  new  party 
arose  on  the  slightest  provocation,  basing  its  antagonism  to 
the  others  on  nothing  finer  nor  more  patriotic  than  individual 
desire  for  political  patronage. 

President  Palma  still  held  the  reins  of  government,  but 
camped  just  outside  Havana  were  twenty  thousand  men 
under  arms  ready  at  any  moment  to  open  hostilities.  These 
insurgents,  as  well  as  the  party  in  power,  had  appealed  to  the 
United  States  for  intervention,  but  neither  faction  had  any 
intention  of  accepting  any  form  of  compromise  which  did 
not  include  all  their  demands. 

For  about  a  week  the  fiercest  storm  that  Mr.  Taft  had  ever 
encountered  raged  about  his  head.  His  one  immediate  de- 
sire was  to  avoid  bloodshed.  His  investigations  proved  that 
no  real  obstacle  to  tranquillity,  or  to  compromise,  existed 
and  he  made  every  effort  to  induce  the  Cubans  to  settle  their 
differences  on  high  non-partisan  grounds,  each  yielding  some- 
thing to  the  other  for  the  sake  of  the  general  good.  But 
he  found  very  little  interest  in  the  "general  good."  Indeed, 
all  through  his  despatches  during  those  days  there  runs  a 
complaint  that  except  with  President  Palma  and  a  few  others 
patriotism  was  not  very  apparent,  that  petty  jealousies  and 
personal  ambitions,  often  of  a  brazen  or  a  sordid  nature,  con- 
stituted the  chief  secret  of  all  the  dissension  and  strife. 

Events  must  have  moved  with  feverish  rapidity.  The 
insurrectos  demanded  the  annulment  of  the  election  which 
continued  the  Palma  government  in  power,  and  the  situa- 

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tion  developed  new  complications  with  every  argument  and 
piece  of  testimony  presented  by  either  side.  Finally  when 
it  was  decided  to  begin  an  investigation  of  election  returns 
with  the  hope  of  arriving  at  a  just  conclusion,  President 
Palma,  who  had  certainly  been  elected  by  irregular  methods, 
though  with  no  connivance  on  his  own  part,  promptly  re- 
signed; his  Congress  failed  to  meet  and  elect  his  successor. 
To  forestall  a  state  of  absolute  anarchy,  with  the  approval  of 
President  Roosevelt,  Mr.  Taft  issued  a  manifesto  proclaim- 
ing an  American  provisional  government  with  himself  as  the 
provisional  governor  of  the  republic.  This  happened  on  the 
eighth  day  after  his  arrival  in  Havana. 

American  marines  had  already  been  landed  to  guard  the 
Treasury  and  a  large  force  of  United  States  troops,  under 
General  Frederick  Funston,  was  in  readiness  to  sail  at  once 
for  Havana. 

There  was  a  strong  sentiment  among  the  better  elements 
of  Cubans,  and  an  almost  unanimous  expression  on  the 
part  of  foreign  residents,  in  favour  of  annexation  to  the 
United  States.  Indeed,  feeling  ran  so  high  on  this  point, 
and  especially  among  those,  of  whatever  nationality,  with 
financial  interests  at  stake  in  Cuba,  that  it  was  thought  for 
a  time  that  an  effort  would  be  made  to  stampede  or  force 
the  United  States  government  into  such  action.  But  Mr. 
Taft's  Philippine  experience  proved  of  value  to  him  in 
this  crisis,  and  his  proclamation  provided  only  for  a  pro- 
visional government  "to  last  long  enough  to  restore  order 
and  peace  and  public  confidence."  The  Cuban  flag  was  not 
hauled  down;  no  Cuban  official  was  to  be  disturbed  in  the 
discharge  of  his  regular  duties;  and  the  American  flag  was 
to  fly  over  nothing  but  American  troops.  In  other  words, 
the  Cuban  Republic  was  not  to  cease  for  an  instant  to  exist. 
It  was  a  curious  situation. 

Shortly  after  the  provisional  government  was  instituted, 
Mr.  Magoon  was  appointed  to  relieve  Mr.  Taft  in  the 

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office  of  governor,  and  was  instructed  to  proceed  at  once  to 
Havana.  Mr.  Taft  cabled  me  and  Mr.  Bacon  cabled  to 
Mrs.  Bacon,  asking  if  we  did  not  want  to  accompany  Mr. 
Magoon,  and,  of  course,  we  immediately  decided  to  do  so. 
We  sailed  on  the  Mascotte  with  the  battleship  Texas  in  our 
wake,  carrying  three  hundred  marines  from  Norfolk,  and 
for  the  first  time  in  my  life  I  felt  as  if  I  were  actually 
"going  to  war."  There  was  such  a  sense  of  rush  through- 
out the  whole  performance  that  it  seemed  tremendously 
serious.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  intervention  was  accomplished 
without  the  firing  of  a  single  gun,  and  when  we  landed  at 
Havana,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  loth  of  October,  just 
twenty  days  after  Mr.  Taft's  arrival  on  the  scene,  the 
principal  enterprise  in  progress  was  the  disarmament  of 
insurgent  troops  which  was  by  that  time  almost  completed. 

When  we  landed  in  Cuba  I  found  myself  once  again, 
although  only  for  the  moment  "the  first  lady  of  the  land," 
and  we  were  received  with  much  ceremony.  It  reminded 
me  of  Manila  days. 

As  we  passed  the  Cabanas  fortress  at  the  entrance  of 
Havana  harbour  the  Texas  fired  a  salute  and  the  echo  of 
the  answering  guns  cracked  and  rattled  from  piers  and  sur- 
rounding sea-walls.  Everything  in  the  harbour  dipped  its 
flag  as  we  came  in,  while  from  out  of  the  maze  of  battle- 
ships and  cruisers,  transports,  merchant  vessels  and  shore 
boats  we  saw  a  launch  approaching  in  the  bow  of  which 
I  could  easily  make  out  my  husband's  generous  proportions. 
With  him  were  his  colleague,  Mr.  Bacon,  his  aide,  Captain 
McCoy,  and  a  second  aide,  Captain  Jose  Marti,  an  artillery- 
man and  son  of  an  old  Cuban  patriot  whom  he  had  ap- 
pointed to  this  position,  to  the  intense  gratification  of  the 
Cuban  people. 

A  second  launch  followed,  bearing  General  Funston  and 
his  aide,  Captain  Cloman,  while  a  third  full  of  Cuban 
newspaper  men  brought  up  the  rear.  These  newspaper 

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men  were  the  most  engaging  reporters  I  ever  encountered. 
They  didn't  approach  Mrs.  Bacon  and  me  with  pads  and 
pencils  and  a  few  ill-considered  questions.  No,  indeed. 
They  came  bearing  flowers,  great,  gorgeous  bouquets  for 
each  of  us,  and  we  were  permitted  to  receive  these  with- 
out having  to  say  anything  more  compromising  than:  "It 
was  a  very  pleasant  voyage,  thank  you,"  and,  "Yes,  in- 
deed, we  are  very  glad  to  get  to  Havana." 

When  we  reached  the  wharf  of  the  Captain  of  the 
Port  we  found  a  large  gathering  of  American  naval  offi- 
cers and  Cuban  citizens,  and  we  were  formally  welcomed 
by  Sefior  Julio  de  Cardenas,  the  Mayor  of  Havana,  who 
was  continuing  to  exercise  his  official  authority  exactly  as 
if  nothing  unusual  had  occurred.  He  was  accompanied 
by  the  members  of  the  City  Council  and  with  them  later 
escorted  us  to  the  Palace. 

As  Mrs.  Bacon  and  I  stepped  into  our  carriage  the 
commander  of  the  rebel  army  and  his  wife  came  up 
to  welcome  us  with  what  the  paper  that  evening  described 
as  "a  floral  offering,"  but  we  saw  nothing  of  the  de- 
posed President  or  his  followers.  Upon  his  resignation 
he  had  gone  down  into  the  country,  where  he  was  said  to 
have  been  received  with  marked  enthusiasm  and  sympathy. 
Nobody  ever  accused  President  Palma  of  being  anything 
but  an  honest  man  and  a  sincere  patriot,  the  victim  of  po- 
litical chicanery  on  the  part  of  his  supporters.  It  was 
afterward  shown  that  he  could  easily  have  been  re-elected 
without  trickery,  but  dishonest  politics  were  the  only  kind 
of  politics  that  his  people  had  yet  learned  how  to  play. 

When  we  arrived  at  the  Palace,  Mr.  Taft,  Mr.  Bacon 
and  Mr.  Magoon  went  into  a  long  conference  in  the  gov- 
ernor's office,  while  I  wandered  around  the  imposing  build- 
ing. It  was  about  as  cheerful  as  a  mortuary  chapel.  It 
seemed  to  be  admirably  adapted  for  the  display  of  gold  lace, 
gorgeous  decorations  and  lofty  martial  manners.  After  a 

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brief  inspection  I  sought  the  spacious  discomfort  of  my  own 
room  and  an  hour's  repose  under  a  betasseled  canopy. 

Mr.  Magoon  was  not  to  assume  the  office  of  governor 
until  disarmament  was  completed  and  an  amnesty  proclama- 
tion had  been  issued.  Mr.  Taft  intended  to  leave  him 
with  no  insurgents  except  those  who  refused  to  give  up 
their  arms,  and  these  were  no  longer  to  be  known  as  insur- 
gents. They  were  to  be  called  bandits  and  were  to  be  hunted 
down  and  treated  as  such. 

I  was  mistress  of  the  Palace  at  Havana  for  just  three 
over-crowded  days.  Before  our  arrival  Mr.  Taft  and  Mr. 
Bacon  had  been  the  guests  of  the  American  Minister,  Mr. 
E.  V.  Morgan,  at  his  beautiful  home  about  nine  miles  out- 
side the  city.  This  house  stood  between  two  insurgent 
camps  and  the  mediators  had  to  pass  by  automobile  through 
rebel  lines  every  morning  and  evening  while  the  uncertain 
negotiations  were  in  progress,  but  the  strange  part  of  this 
intervention  was  that  it  was  welcomed  by  all  the  parties 
concerned  except  the  intervening  party,  so  the  mediators 
were  shown  every  courtesy. 

Mr.  Taft  did  not  take  possession  of  the  Palace  immedi- 
ately after  the  President's  abdication,  but  when  Mr.  Ma- 
goon  was  arriving  he  thought  it  wise  to  do  so  in  order  that 
he  might  induct  him  into  the  office  and  all  its  dignities  with 
due  form,  and  so  it  happened  that  we  found  him  living  there. 

On  the  afternoon  after  our  arrival  Mrs.  Bacon  and  I 
gave  a  reception  which  I  remember  as  a  most  notable  affair. 
It  was  attended  by  hundreds  of  Cubans,  by  all  the  members 
of  the  different  foreign  colonies  and  by  every  American  Army 
and  Navy  officer  who  was  not  at  the  moment  on  active  duty. 
Everybody  seemed  to  be  especially  happy  and  festive  after 
the  month  of  gloom,  and  the  pretty  white  gowns,  the  gay 
Cuban  colours  and  the  crisp  smartness  of  American  uniforms 
mingled  together  in  the  great  rooms  with  quite  brilliant 
effect.  While  we  stood  shaking  hands  with  the  throng 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

passing  by  in  single  file,  the  Municipal  Band  in  the  Park 
before  the  Palace  played  American  music,  from  the  latest 
ragtime  back  to  "Swanee  River,"  interspersed  with  well- 
rendered  classics  and  a  few  gay,  lilting  airs  peculiarly 
Spanish. 

On  the  following  afternoon  Mr.  Morgan  tried  to  outdo 
the  affair  at  the  Palace  with  a  reception  in  our  honour  at 
his  house,  and  succeeded  admirably.  Mr.  Taft  had  written 
of  Mr.  Morgan:  "He  is  something  of  a  sybarite.  He  has 
a  very  fine  house,  a  French  cook  and  all  the  luxuries,  and 
we  are  being  exceedingly  well  taken  care  of; — though  I  do 
think  we  eat  too  much!"  In  fact,  Mr.  Morgan  is  a  true 
host,  combining  imagination  and  great  ability  with  the  wish 
to  entertain.  His  house  at  Havana  was  like  a  scene  from 
some  tropical  grand  opera.  Standing  in  the  midst  of  fine 
gardens  heavy  with  groups  of  big  drooping  palms  and  ferns, 
and  bright  with  wide  spaces  of  green  lawn,  it  seemed  like 
a  veritable  story-book  house.  It  had  wide  corridors  and  a 
quaint,  moss-softened  patio,  in  the  middle  of  which  a  foun- 
tain played  over  a  mass  of  brilliant  tropic  plants.  The 
spacious  rooms  were  filled  with  curios  and  art  treasures  from 
all  parts  of  the  world,  and  I  was  especially  interested  in  a 
splendid  collection  of  brass-bound  and  inlaid  Korean  chests. 
Mr,  Morgan  was  America's  last  Minister  to  Korea,  being 
transferred  from  Seoul  to  Havana  when  Japan  established 
her  Korean  protectorate. 

Although  it  was  nine  miles  out  to  Mr.  Morgan's  house, 
everybody  came,  and  it  was  said  to  be  the  most  representa- 
tive gathering  of  the  city's  leading  families  that  had  been 
seen  in  many  a  day.  Of  course  there  was  music  and  dancing 
and  refreshments  and  all  the  elements  which  go  to  make  up 
an  enjoyable  entertainment,  and  even  though  there  was  a 
general  celebration  going  on  in  the  city,  the  crowds  took 
their  departure  reluctantly. 

The  general  celebration  was  in  commemoration  of  the 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

anniversary  of  the  outbreak  of  the  Ten  Years'  War  in  1858, 
and  it  was  strange  to  see  all  parties  uniting  in  a  demonstra- 
tion of  what  seemed  to  be  real  patriotism.  Havana  was 
decorated  in  regular  old-fashioned  Fourth  of  July  style,  and 
there  were  parades  and  speeches,  bands,  banners  and  fire- 
works, just  as  if  Cuba  were  the  solidest  little  Republic  in  the 
world.  One  really  couldn't  take  the  situation  very  seriously 
after  all, — except  that  it  was  costing  the  country  a  great 
deal  of  money  and  certainly  would  have  cost  many  foolish 
lives  had  it  not  been  taken  in  hand  so  promptly. 

The  next  morning  we  inaugurated  Governoon  Magoon 
and  took  our  departure,  leaving  him  to  his  uncomfortable 
fate.  I  remember  later  a  cartoon  depicting  him  as  sitting 
in  agony  on  a  sizzling  stove  labelled  "Cuba,"  while  Mr. 
Taft  appeared  in  the  distance  in  a  fireman's  garb  carrying 
a  long  and  helpful-looking  line  of  hose.  But  that  illus- 
trated subsequent  history. 

We  sailed  from  Havana  on  the  battleship  Louisiana, 
escorted  by  the  Virginia  and  the  North  Carolina,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Bacon,  General  Funs  ton,  Mr.  Taft  and  I,  on  the 
13th  of  October,  just  twenty-nine  days  from  the  day  on 
which  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  called  the  momentous  conference 
at  Oyster  Bay  to  decide  what  should  be  done  about  Cuba, 
and  we  escaped  by  only  a  few  hours  the  terrible  storm  which 
swept  east  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  that  same  evening. 
It  was  one  of  the  worst  storms  the  locality  had  ever  known. 
It  did  untold  damage  to  property,  killed  a  number  of  people 
and  by  cutting  the  island  off  from  outside  communication 
gave  the  United  States  a  short  period  of  acute  uneasiness  on 
account  of  the  thousands  of  American  soldiers  quartered  in 
Cuba  and  the  big  fleet  of  American  battleships  lying  in  Ha- 
vana harbour.  The  waters  of  Hampton  Roads  were  so 
rough  that  after  boarding  the  Dolphin  for  the  trip  up  the 
Chesapeake  and  the  Potomac  to  Washington  we  went  ashore 
at  Fort  Monroe  and  took  the  train. 

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CHAPTER  XIV 

BUSY    YEARS 

THESE  were  the  days  when  Mr.  Roosevelt,  Mr.  Root  and 
Mr.  Taft  were  known  and  very  aptly  caricatured  as  "The 
Three  Musketeers,"  a  thing  which  both  pleased  and  amused 
them.  Mr.  Roosevelt  was,  of  course,  D'Artagnan,  Mr.  Root 
was  Athos  and  Mr.  Taft  was  Porthos,  and  they  worked  to- 
gether in  such  harmony  and  with  such  high  mutual  regard 
as  one  remembers  now  with  singular  satisfaction. 

Mr.  Hearst  was  running  against  Mr.  Hughes  for  Gov- 
ernor of  New  York,  and  the  situation  in  Idaho,  complicated 
by  the  murder  of  Governor  Steunenberg  and  the  activities 
of  the  anarchistic  element  in  the  Western  Federation  of 
Miners,  seemed  also  to  demand  special  attention  from 
the  Administration,  so  Mr.  Root  was  delegated  to  "hurl  the 
spear  of  civilisation  and  right  thinking"  in  New  York,  while 
Mr.  Taft  was  sent  into  the  West  with  Idaho  as  the  climax 
of  his  itinerary. 

All  this  had  been  arranged  for  him  while  he  was  away 
on  the  mission  of  averting  disaster  in  Cuba,  and  when  he  re- 
turned to  Washington  he  had  just  time,  as  he  expressed  it, 
"to  pack  the  War  Department  into  a  suitcase"  before  he 
was  off  on  a  speech-making  trip  which  took  him  from  Balti- 
more through  Ohio,  Illinois,  Nebraska,  Wyoming  and  Idaho 
and  back  through  Kansas,  Oklahoma,  Texas  and  New  Or- 
leans to  Washington,  with  only  such  time  for  preparation 
of  speeches  as  he  could  get  on  the  trains  between  stops. 

His  letters  to  me  were  dictated  to  his  stenographer,  and 
in  re-reading  them  I  get  the  impression  that  I  was  made  the 
victim  of  his  thinking  processes  since  he  poured  into  them 
all  the  politics  and  the  turmoil  of  the  hour,  together  with 
lengthy  comments  which  kept  me  very  much  alive  with  inter- 
est in  the  campaign  in  which  he  was  engaged. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

About  this  time  there  appeared  in  the  New  York  Sun  an 
editorial  which  pleased  me  and  which  expressed  the  rush 
of  our  lives  with  singular  vividness.  It  said  in  part : 

Merely  to  record  the  movements  and  missions  of  the  Secretary  of 
War  requires  a  nimble  mind.  He  journeys  from  Washington  to 
Manila  to  reassure  ten  millions  of  natives  restive  under  an  experi- 
mental scheme  of  civil  government  and  turns  up  in  Panama  to 
speed  the  digging  of  the  Isthmian  Canal.  To  give  a  fillip  to  a 
campaign  for  reform  in  some  western  State,  or  direct  the  southern 
Republicans  in  the  way  they  should  go,  or  enlighten  the  people 
Down  East  as  to  the  President's  home  policy,  or  illuminate  the 
recesses  of  a  problem  in  jurisdiction  for  the  benefit  of  a  bar  asso- 
ciation, is  only  a  matter  of  grabbing  a  time  table  and  throwing  a 
change  of  clothing  into  a  travelling  bag.  Such  are  mere  relaxa- 
tions and  holiday  jaunts  for  the  Hon.  William  H.  Taft. 

A  Cuban  revolution  would  be  a  poser  to  most  statesmen,  and 
to  an  ordinary  Secretary  of  War  a  labour  of  Hercules;  but  to  the 
business  of  bringing  peace  with  honour  to  a  distracted  land,  de- 
posing one  government  and  setting  up  another,  meanwhile  gratify- 
ing everybody  and  winning  the  esteem  of  the  fiercest  warrior,  Mr. 
Taft  devotes  only  one  page  of  the  Calendar  and  takes  ship  for  the 
States  to  resume  his  routine  duties  as  if  he  had  done  nothing  out 
of  the  common. 

But  routine  duties  in  Washington  do  not  hold  him  long.  An 
itinerary  is  made  up  for  him  and  he  plunges  into  the  stress  and 
turmoil  of  a  political  campaign.  He  is  to  make  speeches  in  Ohio 
and  Illinois,  and  Idaho  claims  him  too.  From  Havana  to  Poca- 
tello  is  something  of  a  change  and  a  far  cry,  but  it  is  all  in  the 
day's  work  for  William  H.  Taft  ...  all  nice  problems  look  alike 
to  the  Secretary  of  War  who  should  be  called  the  Secretary  of  Peace, 
so  uniform  is  his  success  in  smoothing  the  wrinkled  front  of  con- 
flict and  making  two  laughs  echo  where  one  groan  was  heard  before. 

No  emergency,  no  exigency  can  put  the  Hon.  William  H.  Taft 
down.  With  a  heart  for  any  fate,  buoyant  as  hope,  versatile  as 
the  kaleidoscope,  indefatigable  as  fate  and  indomitable  as  victory, 
he  is  a  most  amazing  and  effective  Secretary  of  War.  "Cabinet 
help"  when  William  H.  Taft  is  the  instrument  and  medium,  is 
tantamount  to  the  energy  and  force  of  a  whole  Administration. 
Yet  there  are  those  who  would  circumscribe  his  activities  by  in- 
vesting him  with  the  robes  and  immobile  dignity  of  judicial  office, 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

This  subject  of  my  husband's  appointment  to  the  Su- 
preme Bench  cropped  up  with  what  seemed  to  me  to  be 
rather  annoying  frequency.  While  we  were  in  Cuba  it  was 
rumoured  that  he  would  be  asked  to  fill  the  vacancy  created 
by  the  retirement  of  Justice  Brown,  but  the  report  correctly 
stated  that  he  would  be  likely  to  refuse  the  appointment 
because  of  the  rapidly  developing  possibility  that  he  would 
be  the  Republican  nominee  for  the  Presidency  the  following 
year. 

At  this  time  Mr.  Taft  was  all  but  impervious  to  any 
friendly  advice  which,  being  followed,  would  have  tended 
to  enhance  his  own  political  advantage.  He  was  not  play- 
ing politics  for  himself;  he  was  attending  strictly  to  busi- 
ness, fully  imbued  with  the  conviction  that  the  public  de- 
sired a  continuation  of  the  Administration  as  it  stood.  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  personal  popularity  could  not  be  denied  nor  in 
any  way  belittled,  but  he  had  already  announced  that  he 
was  not  a  candidate  for  a  third  term,  and  all  over  the  coun- 
try the  party  was  organising  to  support  Mr.  Taft,  while  a 
number  of  other  names  were  prominently  mentioned  as  "pos- 
sibilities." Mr.  Roosevelt  had  assured  my  husband  that  he 
could  count  on  his  support,  and  he  also  urged  him  to  lose  no 
opportunity  to  give  personal  encouragement  and  impetus  to 
the  campaign  that  was  being  started  in  his  behalf.  But 
Mr.  Taft  paid  very  little  attention,  and  never  did  he  cease 
to  regard  a  Supreme  Court  appointment  as  vastly  more  de- 
sirable than  the  Presidency.  If  his  letters  of  that  period 
could  be  read  it  would  readily  be  seen  that  he  was  a  most 
difficult  candidate  for  his  loyal  and  eager  supporters  to 
manage. 

About  this  time,  in  conversation  with  Mr.  Roosevelt  in 
respect  to  Mr.  Taft's  candidacy,  I  got  the  impression  that 
he  was  discouraged  over  my  husband  as  a  candidate  be- 
cause he  had  avoided  co-operation  with  certain  political 
organisations  in  the  West,  and,  further,  that  Mr.  Roosevelt 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

thought  he  might  have  to  join  with  other  Republicans  in 
supporting  Governor  Hughes,  because  Mr.  Taf t  was  such  a 
poor  politician. 

I  reported  this  to  Mr.  Taft  and  urged  him  to  display  a 
little  more  enthusiasm  on  his  own  account,  but  in  reply  I  got 
a  good-natured  reminder  that  there  was  "plenty  of  time,"  to- 
gether with  an  analysis  of  the  public  feeling  which,  he 
decided,  was  not  running  in  his  favour  at  all.  He  wrote 
to  Mr.  Roosevelt : 

Mrs.  Taft  writes  me  that  you  are  disposed  to  lecture  me  for 
not  being  more  cordial  in  co-operation  with  some  of  my  .  .  .  friends 
who  want  to  organise  a  campaign  for  me  for  the  presidential 
nomination.  I  told  them  just  exactly  what  the  fact  was  and  noth- 
ing more,  and  I  don't  find  myself  equal  to  becoming  part  of  any 
organisation  of  that  sort.  The  truth  is  in  ...  and  some  of  the 
other  States,  if  a  man  does  not  join  in  a  way  as  to  imply  a  kind  of 
obligation  to  look  after  these  people,  should  success  follow,  there 
is  no  particular  enthusiasm  in  his  favour,  and  in  my  state  of  indif- 
ference about  it  the  organisation  is  not  likely  to  follow  me. 

Mrs.  Taft  said  that  you  said  you  might  have  to  support  Hughes 
for  the  presidency.  If  you  do  you  may  be  sure  that  you  will 
awaken  no  feeling  of  disappointment  on  my  part.  While  I  very 
much  appreciate  your  anxiety  that  I  shall  be  nominated,  and  re- 
gard it  as  the  highest  compliment  possible  to  me,  and  as  a  most 
gratifying  evidence  of  your  good  will,  you  know  what  my  feeling 
has  been  in  respect  to  the  presidency,  and  can  understand  that  it 
will  not  leave  the  slightest  trace  of  disappointment  should  you 
change  your  views  and  think  it  wise  to  make  a  start  in  any  other 
direction. 

In  Mr.  Roosevelt's  reply  to  Mr.  Taft,  he  said  I  had  mis- 
understood him,  that  what  he  had  said  was  that  Mr.  Taft 
must  not  be  too  entirely  aloof  because  if  he  were  it  might 
dishearten  his  supporters  and  put  all  Republicans  in  such 
shape  that  some  man  like  Governor  Hughes,  or  more  proba- 
bly some  man  from  the  West,  would  turn  up  with  so  much 
popular  sentiment  behind  him  that  there  would  be  no  course 
open  but  to  support  him. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

The  1905  campaign  was  a  hotly  contested  one.  The  Re- 
publicans won  in  New  York  and  Idaho,  and  generally,  I 
believe,  though  I  remember  those  two  States  especially,  and 
I  find  Mr.  Taft  writing  to  Mr.  Root  from  Ft.  Leavenworth, 
Kansas,  on  his  way  back  from  Boise  City: 

Dear  Athos: 

I  saw  a  copy  of  your  speech  when  I  was  in  the  "wilds"  of 
Idaho,  and  I  cannot  tell  you  the  comfort  it  gave  me  to  read  it,  and 
how  it  intensified  the  affection  and  admiration  I  have  always  had 
for  the  speaker.  I  can  just  think  of  your  making  up  your  mind 
to  say  the  thing  and  do  the  thing  that  the  occasion  demanded.  .  .  . 
You  selected  the  psychological  moment,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  you 
did  a  great  deal  to  prevent  Hearst's  election,  and  I  do  not  doubt  also 
that  you  are  receiving  the  commendations  of  your  grateful  fellow 
citizens  of  New  York,  and  all  over  the  country,  as  you  ought  to, 
for  hurling  your  spear  full  and  fair  at  this  "knight  of  evil."  .  .  . 

From  everything  I  have  seen  in  the  west  my  judgment  is  that 
the  President  cannot  avoid  running  again.  .  .  .  There  is  no  real 
second  choice  where  I  have  been.  Of  course  there  are  compli- 
mentary allusions  to  others.  ...  So  far  as  you  and  I  are  con- 
cerned I  think  we  are  well  out  of  it,  and  whatever  may  be  our 
ambitions  for  honourable  service,  there  is  a  compensation  in  not 
having  to  be  exposed  to  the  horrors  of  a  campaign  with  this  product 
of  yellow  journalism  whom  you  have  had  so  much  satisfaction  in 
sending  down  to  defeat  for  a  time. 

Apropos  of  this  victory,  Mr.  Roosevelt  wrote  to  Mr.  Taft : 

Upon  my  word  I  do  not  know  which  to  be  the  more  proud  of, 
what  Root  did  in  New  York  or  what  you  did  in  Idaho. 

When  Mr.  Taft  got  back  to  Washington  he  found  the  fol- 
lowing letter  from  Mr.  Root,  which  completes  the  triangle 
of  this  mutual  admiration  society  of  the  Three  Musketeers : 

Dear  Porthos: 

I  have  been  disappointed  that  your  most  important  and  ad- 
mirable speech  in  Idaho  has  not  been  more  freely  published  and 
commented  on  in  the  East.  I  have  just  suggested  to  the  Editor  of 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

The  Outlook  that  he  ought  to  print  it  in  extenso  and  call  atten- 
tion to  it.  He  will  apply  to  you  directly  for  it  and  I  hope  you 
will  let  him  have  it. 

I  am  going  to  start  Saturday  afternoon  to  be  away  for  a  week, 
and  if  you  see  any  gaping  lids  about  my  Department  in  the  mean- 
time, please  sit  on  them  gently. 

Faithfully  yours, 

ELIHU  ROOT. 

"Sitting  on  the  lid"  was  not  in  any  sense  the  stationary 
and  reposeful  performance  the  expression  seems  to  suggest. 
Before  Mr.  Taft  returned  to  Washington  from  a  tour  of 
inspection  of  brigade  posts,  which  followed  immediately 
upon  his  trip  to  Idaho,  Mr.  Roosevelt  had  gone  to  Panama, 
leaving  behind  him  various  questions,  including  the  one 
which  resulted  from  the  discharge  without  honour  of  the 
three  companies  of  coloured  troops  at  Brownsville,  Texas, 
for  the  Secretary  of  War  to  keep  within  bounds  until  his 
return.  Then  there  were  many  matters  of  a  purely  execu- 
tive nature  which,  as  long  as  they  did  not  require  the  signa- 
ture of  the  President  himself,  Mr.  Taft  was  authorised  and 
expected  to  dispose  of.  And  with  the  Secretary  of  State 
also  absent,  his  office  became  government  headquarters,  prac- 
tically, where  foreign  Ambassadors,  Senators  and  officials 
of  other  Departments  had  to  take  their  chances  of  an  inter- 
view along  with  visitors  or  representatives  from  the  Philip- 
pines, Hawaii,  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  Alaska  and  the  Canal 
Zone,  and  with  Army  officers  and  War  Department  clerks. 

I  finally  gave  up  all  idea  of  ever  getting  him  home  to 
luncheon,  but  we  nearly  always  had  a  dinner  engagement, 
so  along  about  the  hour  when  I  knew  he  would  have  just 
time  to  rush  home  and  dress  I  would  call  him  on  the  tele- 
phone. And  then,  if  I  were  fortunate  enough  to  get  him 
without  a  disgraceful  delay,  he  almost  invariably  came  in, 
followed  by  an  extra  private  secretary  bearing  a  large  port- 
folio of  papers  to  be  disposed  of  before  such  hour  as  he  chose 
to  consider  bedtime. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

The  winter  of  1906-7  was  too  busy  to  remember  as  any- 
thing except  a  sort  of  hazy  nightmare  lightened  in  spots  by 
contemplation  of  the  delightful  possibilities  contained  in 
a  rapidly  growing  Presidential  "boom,"  but  it  came  to 
an  end,  and  early  in  the  summer  I  gathered  up  my  family 
and  a  few  necessary  belongings  and  went  to  Murray  Bay. 
We  were  to  leave  some  time  in  August  for  the  Philippines 
and  the  trip  around  the  world  via  the  Trans-Siberian  Rail- 
way, and  I  wanted  very  much  to  have  my  husband  get  away 
for  a  few  weeks  of  absolute  detachment  from  public  affairs, 
feeling  sure  that  it  would  be  his  last  opportunity  for  rest 
and  relaxation  for  many  a  day.  But  no  man  can  be  a  can- 
didate for  President  of  the  United  States  and  indulge  at 
the  same  time  in  even  a  short  period  of  complete  tranquillity. 

Before  Mr.  Taft  joined  me  he,  in  deference  to  the  wishes 
of  the  men  who  were  conducting  his  "boom,"  made  an- 
other speech-making  trip  through  the  West  on  the  method 
so  aptly  described  as  "whirlwind,"  and  did  not  arrive  in 
Murray  Bay  until  the  first  week  in  July. 

It  just  occurs  to  me  that  I  have  covered  all  these  different 
periods  of  our  lives  without  even  mentioning  Murray  Bay, 
although  a  large  part  of  the  Taft  family  has  been  spending 
the  summers  there  for  twenty  years  or  more.  We  went 
there  before  the  place  became  in  any  sense  "fashionable," 
when  the  only  kind  of  hotel  accommodation  was  in  quaint 
old  inns  of  the  real  French-Canadian  type  in  which  no  Eng- 
lish was  spoken,  but  where  service  of  such  delightfully  sim- 
ple and  satisfactory  quality  as  can  no  longer  be  obtained  was 
smilingly  offered  at  rates  which  would  now  be  considered 
absurdly  low.  After  our  first  year  in  1892  we  always  had 
a  cottage, — and  on  going  to  Murray  Bay  we  prepared  to 
enjoy  ourselves  in  the  luxury  of  complete  simplicity. 

The  cottage  which  we  have  occupied  for  a  number  of  years 
is  perched  on  a  rocky  headland  overlooking  the  sixteen  miles 
wide  stretch  of  the  St.  Lawrence  river  and  almost  entirely 

308 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

hidden  in  a  dense  grove  of  fragrant  pine  trees.  It  is  roomy 
and  comfortable,  but  simple  as  a  camp  in  the  woods,  being 
finished  in  unpainted  pine  and  furnished  with  only  such 
things  as  may  be  locked  up  and  left  year  in  and  year  out. 
There  is  nothing  to  tempt  any  possible  robber,  the  only 
distinctive  things  in  the  house  being  some  Philippine  curios, 
wall  decorations  and  floor  mats,  called  "petates,"  which 
we  have  brought  with  us  at  different  times  from  Manila. 

Mr.  Taft  stayed  at  Murray  Bay  about  five  weeks,  but 
during  that  time  our  cottage  in  the  woods  was  the  United 
States  War  Department  and  headquarters  of  a  very  probable 
Presidential  candidate.  Then,  too,  Mr.  Taft  was  beset 
with  the  nagging  necessity  for  preparing  speeches  which 
were  really  to  launch  his  campaign  for  the  nomination  before 
he  left  for  the  trip  around  the  world.  The  campaign  in 
Ohio  became  centred  and  active  during  the  summer,  with 
Mr.  Taft  far  in  the  lead  among  possible  candidates,  and  all 
over  the  country  organisations  were  forming  which  de- 
manded whole-hearted  and  unremitting  attention. 

The  busy  man  wrote  to  Mr.  Roosevelt:  "I  am  enjoy- 
ing my  vacation,"  but  his  vacation  consisted  in  a  release 
from  constant  social  formalities  and  a  daily  round  of  golf 
on  the  links  of  the  Murray  Bay  Club  which  he  liked  so  much 
and  over  which  he  had  played  for  so  many  years, — nothing 
more. 

Early  in  August  he  left  for  Washington  with  the  under- 
standing that  I  should  complete  arrangements,  and  taking 
Charlie  with  me,  should  meet  him  at  the  entrance  of  Yellow- 
stone Park  at  the  end  of  the  month.  In  the  meantime  he 
had  one  more  long  speech-making  trip  to  begin  at  Columbus 
on  the  iQth  of  August  and  to  take  him  through  Ohio,  Ken- 
tucky, Missouri,  Oklahoma  and  to  Denver. 

His  mother,  to  whom  the  whole  family  was  strongly  de- 
voted, was  at  this  time  very  ill.  It  did  not  seem  possible 
that  she  could  be  with  us  for  long,  and  all  of  her  sons  wished 

309 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

sincerely  to  be  able  to  remain  near  her.  One  of  them, 
Horace,  was  able  to  do  so,  but  when  my  husband  declared  to 
her  his  desire  to  give  up  the  trip  to  the  Philippines  and  stay 
in  the  United  States  until  she  recovered  she  said  to  him: 

"No  Taft,  to  my  knowledge,  has  ever  yet  neglected  a 
public  duty  for  the  sake  of  gratifying  a  private  desire.  You 
promised  the  Filipinos  that  you  would  be  present  at  the 
opening  of  their  first  Assembly,  and  if  you  should  break  that 
promise  and  neglect  your  plain  duty  on  my  account,  it  would 
give  me  no  pleasure." 

This  was  the  last  serious  thing  she  ever  said  to  him,  and 
it  gave  him  great  comfort  throughout  the  long  trip  as  the 
reports  of  her  failing  strength  came  to  him.  He  never  saw 
her  again. 

With  my  son  Charlie,  who  was  then  nearly  ten  years  old, 
I  met  my  husband  and  his  party  at  Livingston  Junction, 
on  the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad  in  Montana,  and  we  pro- 
ceeded together  to  Gardiner  at  the  entrance  to  Yellowstone 
Park.  There  we  were  met  by  General  Young,  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Park,  and  Colonel  Henry  T.  Allen,  and  by  the 
head  of  the  Park  transportation  company  and  began  at  once 
a  wonderful  three  days'  trip,  which  included,  among  other 
things,  the  business  of  inspecting  the  Army  post  with  the 
purpose  of  making  recommendations  for  changes  in  the  Park 
patrolling  system. 

As  our  time  was  very  short  we  had  to  drive  about  fifty 
miles  every  day,  which  meant  hurrying  on  at  top  speed,  with 
relays  of  Army  mules,  and  not  much  more  than  a  how-d'ye-do 
and  good-bye  at  every  place  we  stopped.  In  consequence 
we  completely  lost  track  of  the  days  of  the  week  and  made 
what  I  then  thought  would  prove  to  be  a  fatal  error. 

We  got  back  to  the  Mammoth  Springs  Hotel  one  evening 
and  found  the  place  quite  gay  with  crowds  of  tourists. 
There  being  nothing  else  to  do,  I  suggested  that  after  din- 
ner we  play  bridge  in  the  lobby  where  all  the  people  were 

310 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  where  everything  seemed  so  lively  and  entertaining. 
We  did.  Mr.  Taft  and  I,  General  Clarence  Edwards  and 
another  member  of  our  party  sat  there  and  played  until  quite 
late,  enjoying  ourselves  immensely.  Everybody  looked  at 
us,  and  I  noticed  a  few  persons  taking  special  pains  to  pass 
close  enough  for  a  really  satisfactory  inspection,  but  we  were 
used  to  being  gazed  at  and  paid  no  attention  to  it.  It  was 
not  until  the  next  morning  that  every  look  that  was  cast 
upon  us  assumed  for  me  a  special  meaning.  The  next 
morning  was  Monday ! 

Under  any  circumstances  it  would  have  shocked  us  some- 
what to  find  that  through  forgetfulness  we  had  played 
bridge  during  a  whole  Sunday  evening,  but  with  Mr.  Taft 
generally  recognised  as  a  probable  candidate  for  President, 
our  shock  was  merged  into  serious  concern  with  regard  to 
the  effect  the  story  might  have  on  the  millions  of  good  Sab- 
batarians throughout  the  country.  And  there  was  no  possi- 
ble explanation  that  we  could  make.  Playing  cards  was 
bad  enough,  but  to  have  forgotten  Sunday  altogether  was  a 
great  deal  worse,  so  we  were  perfectly  helpless.  Up  to  the 
day  Mr.  Taft  was  elected  I  looked  for  the  story  to  rise  up 
and  smite  us.  I  had  visions  of  glaring  headlines:  "Taft 
Plays  Cards  on  the  Sabbath  Day."  Having  been  brought 
up  on  strictly  Sabbatarian  principles  myself,  I  knew  what 
good  use  could  be  made  of  the  incident  in  the  hands  of  our 
political  enemies.  But  we  never  heard  a  word  from  it,  and 
I  have  a  warm  regard  for  all  those  good  people  who  failed  to 
avail  themselves  of  such  an  opportunity  for  a  bit  of  valua- 
ble gossip.  Or  had  they  all  forgotten  it  was  Sunday,  too? 

On  the  way  from  Yellowstone  Park  to  Seattle  I  had  a 
taste  of  real  campaign  work  and  always  thereafter  enjoyed 
a  full  realisation  of  its  difficulties.  I  got  completely  worn 
out  as  a  mere  onlooker,  and  as  I  saw  Mr.  Taft  encountering 
the  throngs  at  every  stopping  place,  speaking  until  his  voice 
was  reduced  to  a  hoarse  whisper,  and  shaking  hands  until 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

he  groaned  with  the  ache  of  his  muscles,  my  political  en- 
thusiasm waned  slightly,  though  temporarily,  and  I  could 
think  of  nothing  to  be  more  thankful  for  at  the  moment 
than  the  fact  that  we  were  about  to  set  out  on  a  two  weeks' 
ocean  voyage,  beginning  a  three  months'  trip  around  the 
world. 


312 


CHAPTER  XV 

A    HURRIED    TRIP    AROUND    THE    WORLD 

I  HAVE  not  the  space  to  give  a  detailed  account  of  this  trip 
around  the  world.  After  a  pleasant  voyage  on  the  steam- 
ship Minnesota  we  were  given  in  Japan  the  same  warm  wel- 
come that  we  had  always  had  there,  and  Mr.  Taft  and  I 
were  entertained  at  the  Shiba  Detached  Palace,  one  of  the 
Imperial  residences.  We  lunched  with  the  Emperor  and 
also  with  Prince  Fushimi,  and  we  met  the  admirals  and  the 
generals  who  had  won  such  distinction  in  the  Russo-Japanese 
War.  These  included  Admiral  Togo  and  Field  Marshal 
Prince  Oyama.  It  was  explained  to  Mr.  Taft  by  the  Court 
Chamberlain  that  we  were  regarded  as  personal  guests  of 
the  Emperor.  Marquis  Saionji  was  then  Premier,  but 
Prince  Katsura,  whom  he  had  succeeded  and  who  was  our 
old  friend,  was  still  powerful  in  the  councils.  Mr.  Taft 
held  a  number  of  interesting  and  useful  interviews  with  these 
statesmen  of  Japan,  and  also  with  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  Count  Hayashi,  and  with  Marquis  Terauchi,  the 
Minister  of  War,  who  has  now  become  Governor  of  Korea. 
He  was  able,  from  what  they  told  him,  to  understand  the 
attitude  of  Japan  toward  the  United  States,  and  to  feel  con- 
fident of  her  wish  to  remain  in  bonds  of  amity  with  us.  At 
a  dinner  in  Tokyo,  given  by  the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
Mr.  Taft  made  a  speech  in  which  he  pointed  out  the  absurd- 
ity of  a  war  between  Japan  and  the  United  States,  and 
showed  how  the  true  interests  of  both  nations  required  a 
strengthening  of  the  bonds  of  friendship  between  them. 
This  speech  attracted  much  attention  throughout  the  Orient 
and  was  cabled  back  to  the  United  States  as  an  expression 
of  the  Administration  on  the  subject.  The  Japanese  resi- 
dents of  Yokohama  presented  to  Mr.  Taft  and  me  on  this 
visit  a  very  hansdome  silver  tea  set. 

Our  course  took  us  by  way  of  Shanghai  and  we  stopped 

313 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

there  for  just  one  busy  day.  In  the  morning  Mr.  Taft  ded- 
icated a  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  building  which 
had  just  been  constructed  and  to  the  cost  of  which  a  number 
of  Chinese  Mandarins,  though  not  Christians,  had  made  sub- 
stantial contribution.  The  afternoon  was  devoted  to  shop- 
ping and  to  a  most  elaborate  and  picturesque  reception  and 
tea  which  was  given  for  us  by  the  Chinese  guilds  of  the  city. 
At  this  tea  I  was  presented  with  a  very  curious  and  interest- 
ing bowl  of  Chinese  silver  which  is  among  my  most  valued 
possessions.  In  the  evening  a  great  banquet  was  given  by 
the  leading  citizens  of  Shanghai  at  the  Astor  Hotel,  where 
provision  was  made  for  the  ladies  to  hear  the  speaking  from 
a  platform  erected  at  one  end  of  the  room.  Mr.  Taft  made 
a  speech  on  the  subject  of  the  relations  of  the  United  States 
to  the  development  of  China,  which  was  long  remembered 
as  a  succinct  and  forcible  presentation  of  the  policy  of  the 
United  States  toward  that  country,  then  in  an  interesting 
stage  of  its  awakening  from  a  long  lethargy. 

In  Manila,  at  the  formal  opening  of  the  first  Assembly, 
Mr.  Taft  laid  down  the  purposes  of  the  Administration  in 
the  passage  of  the  Philippine  Act,  plainly  saying  to  the 
Philippine  people  that  independence  was  not  near  at  hand, 
and  that  it  could  only  come  after  a  period  of  earnest  effort 
on  their  part  to  fit  themselves  for  complete  self-government. 
His  candour  and  frankness  did  not  please  many  of  the  As- 
sembly, but  his  view  has  always  been  that  the  only  way  in 
which  to  deal  with  the  Filipino  people  is  to  tell  them  the 
exact  truth,  unpalatable  though  it  may  be,  and  to  fulfil 
promises  with  the  greatest  care.  Filipinos  may  be  very  lax 
in  discharging  the  full  measure  of  their  own  assurances,  but 
the  way  to  maintain  influence  over  them  is  to  pursue  a  policy 
of  clear  and  candid  statement,  full  performance  and  exact 
justice.  They  are  prone  to  accept  every  declaration  in  the 
same  sense  in  which  they  would  like  to  construe  it,  and  the 
utmost  care  must  be  taken  to  prevent  their  being  misled. 

3H 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Demagoguery  with  them  is  likely  to  be  most  pernicious  in 
its  ultimate  results. 

During  this  visit  we  were  the  guests  of  Governor  Gen- 
eral Smith  at  Malacanan  Palace  and  I  experienced  a  pleasant 
renewal  of  old  impressions  and  sensations.  Mr.  W.  Cam- 
eron Forbes,  who  succeeded  Governor  Smith,  was  then  Sec- 
retary of  Commerce  and  Police  and,  in  this  capacity,  was  in 
charge  of  Public  Works.  He  had  built  for  himself  at 
Baguio  a  fine  country  residence  which  he  called  "Topside," 
a  name  which  fits  it  exactly,  since  it  stands,  literally,  at  the 
"topside5'  of  the  island  of  Luzon,  at  an  elevation  of  more 
than  five  thousand  feet,  and  overlooks  the  broadest  and  most 
colourful  stretch  of  mountain  scenery  imaginable.  We  vis- 
ited Mr.  Forbes  at  "Topside"  and  were  able  to  see  for  the 
first  time  the  splendid  achievements  in  the  development  of 
the  summer  capital  which  I  anticipated  in  Chapter  IX. 
Mr.  Taft  assured  an  enthusiastic  enquirer  that  he  was  not 
surprised  at  the  magnificence  of  the  Benguet  Road  because 
he  had  authorised  the  expenditure  of  a  sufficient  amount  to 
produce  something  unusual,  and  that  he  would,  indeed,  have 
been  surprised  if  it  hadn't  been  done.  But  he  had  to  con- 
fess to  a  little  surprise  at  the  improvement  of  the  town  of 
Baguio.  The  difference  was  so  great  that  it  was  almost 
impossible  to  recognise  the  place  as  the  site  of  the  ragged 
little  Igorrote  village  where  I  had  spent  such  pleasant  and 
"uncivilised"  days  just  before  my  husband's  inauguration 
as  the  first  governor  of  the  Philippines. 

It  would  be  useless  for  me  to  attempt  to  detail  the  thou- 
sand and  one  events  of  this  visit  to  Manila.  Upon  our 
arrival  we  were  handed  a  printed  schedule  of  dinners, 
luncheons,  teas,  receptions,  balls,  meetings,  celebrations, 
trips  of  inspection,  and  business  conferences  which  we  had 
to  do  our  best  to  carry  out.  Fortunately  provision  was 
made  for  a  few  hours  of  rest  which  could  be  used  for  other 
things  when  we  got  behind  with  the  programme. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

On  a  day  in  November,  when  blue  Manila  Bay  lay  spark- 
ling in  the  sun,  we  set  sail  for  Vladivostok  on  the  U.  S.  S. 
Rainbow,  flying  the  flag  of  Admiral  Hemphill,  and  con- 
voyed by  two  other  naval  vessels.  The  most  amusing  inci- 
dent of  this  trip,  which  was  quite  a  tempestuous  one,  was 
the  gradual  freezing  up  of  our  Filipino  orchestra.  They 
left  Manila  clad  in  natty  white  uniforms,  responding  with 
enthusiasm  to  the  strains  of  the  many  bands  on  shore  and 
on  the  fleet  of  harbor  launches  which  accompanied  us  down 
the  bay.  They  played  for  us  at  dinner  that  night  and  gave 
a  concert  on  deck  the  next  day,  but  then  began  the  rapid 
descent  of  the  mercury  in  the  thermometers  and  the  con- 
sequent undoing  of  our  tropical  musicians.  They  first 
changed  into  heavy  blue  uniforms  and  tried  their  best  to 
look  comfortable.  Then  they  put  on  their  overcoats  and 
kept  them  on.  Finally  they  deserted  the  deck  altogether 
and  their  rather  disconnected  strains  came  up  to  us  through 
a  partly  open  hatch  just  over  the  engine  room.  When  we 
reached  the  forbidding  harbour  of  Vladivostok,  where  the 
temperature  stood  below  zero,  the  poor  bugler  was  so  thor- 
oughly cold  that  he  couldn't  adjust  his  lips  to  his  bugle  to 
pipe  distinguished  visitors  aboard.  Our  party  on  this  trip 
around  the  world  was  small,  including  only  my  son  Charlie, 
Mr.  Taffs  secretary,  Mr.  Fred  C.  Carpenter,  General  Clar- 
ence R.  Edwards,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Martin  Egan  and  two  other 
newspaper  correspondents. 

Shortly  before  we  reached  Vladivostok  there  had  been  a 
mutiny  on  one  of  the  torpedo  boats  in  the  harbour,  and  a 
woman  anarchist  had  induced  the  crew  to  take  the  boat  out 
into  the  stream  and  raise  the  red  flag.  This  outbreak  was 
suppressed  with  a  heavy  hand,  and  a  number  of  those  sus- 
pected of  complicity  in  the  plot  were  arrested.  As  the  Gov- 
ernor had  power  of  life  and  death  over  them  it  was  assumed 
that  the  extreme  penalty  was  visited  on  some  of  them  at 
least,  but  no  publicity  was  given  to  the  proceedings.  The 

316 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

effect  of  the  tragedy  upon  our  arrival,  however,  was  marked. 
The  town  was  in  a  most  unquiet  state  and  there  were  vague 
rumours  of  danger  to  be  met  on  every  hand.  We  were  not 
permitted  to  go  ashore  without  a  heavy  guard  of  bristling 
Cossacks,  and  everywhere  we  went  we  were  under  the  closest 
and  most  careful  protection.  It  was  most  exciting,  though 
in  the  midst  of  the  cordial  hospitality  of  our  Russian  hosts 
we  could  not  feel  that  there  was  the  slightest  cause  for  ap- 
prehension. As  soon  as  we  dropped  anchor  in  the  harbour 
we  were  welcomed  to  Vladivostok  by  the  Governor  and 
General  Commanding.  He  assigned  Prince  Bariatinski, 
Colonel  of  a  regiment  stationed  at  Vladivostok,  to  act  as 
Mr.  Taft's  aide  during  our  stay,  and  from  Saturday  until 
Tuesday  he  and  the  Princess,  both  of  whom  spoke  English, 
were  with  us  constantly,  adding  much  to  our  enjoyment. 
Our  visit  concluded  with  a  dinner  and  ball  given  by  the  Gov- 
ernor, and  the  next  morning  we  bade  good-bye  to  the  Rain- 
bow and  Admiral  Hemphill  and  made  our  way,  surrounded 
by  Cossack  guards,  to  the  railway  station  where  the  train 
waited  to  start  on  its  twelve  days'  trip  across  Siberia.  The 
government  provided  us  with  a  large  private  car  of  the 
armoured  variety  which  contained  a  number  of  compart- 
ments that  were  fully  as  spacious  and  comfortable  as  an 
average  steamship  cabin  and  we  settled  ourselves  in  them 
quite  as  we  would  have  done  on  a  trans-Pacific  liner. 

The  trip  across  Siberia  is  exceedingly  interesting.  One 
anticipates  endless  monotony,  but  only  the  landscape  lacks 
variety.  For  days  together  the  train  runs  along  through  a 
country  which  looks  exactly  like  South  Dakota  or  Nebraska 
and  which  is  interesting  only  in  its  wonderful  possibilities. 
It  is  one  of  the  world's  open  spaces,  undeveloped  but  capable 
of  producing  anything.  I  had  always  imagined  Siberia  as 
a  country  filled  with  sadness  and  I  expected  it  to  depress 
me,  but  it  arouses  no  such  feeling.  We  met  trainload  after 
trainload  of  happy  Russian  colonists  on  their  way  to  the 

31? 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

new  settlements,  and  at  all  the  well-built  stations  along  the 
way  we  saw  a  great  number  of  sturdy  peasant  farmers  and 
their  families  who  looked  thoroughly  comfortable  and  con- 
tented. We  whiled  away  the  hours  with  bridge  and  books, 
and,  though  the  train  never  made  more  than  two  or  three 
stops  a  day,  the  time  passed  quickly.  Throughout  the 
journey  our  car  was  guarded  by  stalwart  Russian  soldiers  in 
most  picturesque  uniforms,  stationed  on  both  platforms,  and 
each  time  the  train  stopped  this  guard  was  changed  with 
considerable  ceremony.  Also  at  every  station  near  an  army 
post  Mr.  Taft  was  greeted  by  the  Commander  of  the  Dis- 
trict with  strict  military  form,  all  of  which  added  colour 
and  interest  to  the  journey. 

Mr.  Willard  D.  Straight,  then  United  States  Consul  at 
Mukden,  met  us  at  Vladivostok  with  plans  for  our  reception 
at  Mukden.  When  we  arrived  there  we  were  welcomed  by 
a  company  of  Chinese  soldiers  dressed  in  the  old  Mongolian 
custom,  and  by  a  squadron  of  Cossacks.  We  were  hurried 
in  a  carriage  behind  two  fast  trotting  OrlofT  horses  to  a  hotel 
where  all  the  consuls  assembled  greeted  us  with  cakes,  cham- 
pagne and  very  short  speeches.  There  was  considerable  ex- 
citement among  the  consuls  with  regard  to  the  toasts  to  be 
drunk  and  the  order  of  precedence  in  which  the  rulers  of 
the  different  countries  were  to  be  named,  but  Mr.  Straight 
was  diplomatic  enough  to  mention  every  proper  name  in 
right  order  and  the  result  was  a  round  of  congratulation  and 
merriment.  In  the  meantime  the  leisurely  and  accommo- 
dating train  was  waiting,  so  we  hurried  back  to  the  station 
at  the  terrific  pace  usual  to  the  Russian  with  his  beautiful 
horses.  No  people  not  inherently  fine  could  ever  produce 
the  kind  of  horses  one  sees  in  Russia.  And  the  Russians 
love  them.  I  can  think  of  nothing  more  pleasing  than  the 
picture  of  a  great,  shaggy,  gruff-voiced  Russian  coachman  on 
the  box  of  his  carriage  or  droshky,  gently  urging  his  well- 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

kept  horse  on  to  his  best  speed  in  terms  of  endearment. 
"On,  Little  Brother!"  says  he. 

At  Moscow  we  were  right  royally  entertained  by  the  Gov- 
ernor-General of  the  city  who  did  everything  possible  to 
make  our  visit  memorable.  We  arrived  late  Saturday  night 
and  on  Sunday  the  Kremlin  was  opened  for  our  especial 
benefit  and  we  were  given  full  opportunity  to  see  every  part 
of  that  ancient  and  interesting  home  of  Russian  autocracy 
with  all  its  collections  of  priceless  treasures.  A  hurried 
round  of  entertainments,  which  included  a  special  ballet 
performance  at  the  Opera,  ended  with  a  dinner  given  by  the 
Governor-General,  and  we  left  on  the  midnight  train  for  St. 
Petersburg.  We  had  not  been  there  more  than  an  hour  or 
so  the  next  morning  when  we  received  a  telegram  announc- 
ing that  a  woman  Nihilist  had  thrown  a  bomb  at  the  Gov- 
ernor's sleigh  which  had  exploded  under  the  horses,  killing 
them  and  the  coachman  and  throwing  the  Governor  and  his 
aide  backward  into  the  snow  unharmed.  As  these  gentle- 
men had  both  been  very  kind  to  us  it  brought  home  in  a 
startling  way  the  danger  that  attends  high  position  in  Russia. 

In  St.  Petersburg  we  dined  with  the  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  M.  Iswolski  and  Madame  Iswolski,  and  with  them 
received  the  Diplomatic  Corps.  Mr.  Taft  and  General  Ed- 
wards had  an  audience  with  the  Czar  and  attended  the 
annual  Saint's  day  celebration  of  a  famous  regiment  num- 
bering about  3,200,  no  man  of  which  measures  less  than  six 
feet  two.  They  were  also  present  at  a  luncheon  which  the 
Czar  gave  to  the  officers  of  this  regiment  at  the  Czar-Koe- 
Selo  Palace.  In  the  Czar's  suite  there  were  two  or  three 
gentlemen  who  remembered  Mr.  Taft's  father  as  Minister 
to  Russia,  so  he  very  greatly  enjoyed  the  experience  of  meet- 
ing them. 

Our  visit  was  a  hurried  one,  and  after  a  stay  of  three  days 
we  left  for  Berlin.  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Mr.  Root  were  not 

3*9 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

disposed  to  have  Mr.  Taft  visit  any  of  the  courts  of  Europe 
except  at  St.  Petersburg  and  that  only  for  the  purpose  of 
conveying  his  grateful  acknowledgment  of  the  courtesies 
shown  us  in  our  long  trip  across  Siberia.  Nor  in  the  state 
of  his  mother's  health,  which  we  knew  to  be  precarious,  was 
he  disposed  to  accept  the  invitations  which  he  received  from 
the  German  Emperor,  the  King  of  Belgium,  the  President 
of  France  and  others,  to  visit  their  countries  and  become 
their  guest.  At  Berlin  we  had  just  time  to  dine  with  the 
American  Ambassador  and  Mrs.  Tower,  and  to  meet  a  few 
American  friends  whom  they  had  invited  in,  then  Mr.  Taft 
and  the  other  members  of  the  party  went  to  Hamburg  to 
take  the  Steamship  General  Grant  at  that  port,  while  I,  with 
Mrs.  Post  Wheeler,  rushed  down  to  Paris  to  do  a  few  hours' 
shopping,  planning  to  join  the  Grant  at  Boulogne  the  next 
evening.  In  the  meantime  a  terrible  storm  began  to  rage 
along  the  coast,  and  when  we  reached  Boulogne  there  was 
some  question  about  our  being  able  to  get  to  the  Grant 
which  lay  at  anchor  just  outside  the  breakwater.  However, 
we  boarded  the  little  tender  and  she  started  for  the  very  wild 
looking  open  channel.  She  had  no  sooner  struck  the  heavy 
seas  before  she  had  broken  her  rudder  and  was  being  buf- 
feted about  in  a  really  terrifying  manner.  We  managed  in 
some  way  to  get  back  inside  the  breakwater  where  some  re- 
pairs were  made,  then  we  started  out  again.  We  repeated 
this  performance  several  times,  listening  meanwhile  to  gen- 
erally voiced  predictions  that  nothing  on  earth  could  save 
us  from  going  to  the  bottom,  and,  although  it  was  only  nine 
o'clock  in  the  evening  when  we  boarded  the  little  vessel,  it 
was  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  before  she  came  alongside 
the  Grant  and  discharged  her  dilapidated  and  exhausted 
passengers. 

Mr.  Taft  had  waited  up  for  us  and  had  seen  the  tender 
come  out  of  the  harbour  and  go  back,  and,  assuming  from 
what  was  told  him  that  no  attempt  would  be  made  to  trans- 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

fer  the  passengers  before  morning,  he  went  to  bed.  When 
I  got  aboard  the  steamer,  filled  with  excitement  over  the 
dangers  through  which  I  had  passed,  and  found  him  peace- 
fully sleeping  in  his  cabin,  I  declined  to  accept  any  explana- 
tion. A  French  sub-prefect,  who  had  been  sent  out  by  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior  of  France  with  greetings  and  com- 
pliments, and  who  had  come  in  his  full  regimentals  with  a 
cocked  hat,  was  waiting  to  see  Mr.  Taft  and  I  was  cruel 
enough  to  insist  that  he  should  get  up  and  receive  him. 
Throwing  a  long  fur  coat  over  his  pajamas  the  Secretary  of 
War  of  the  United  States  walked  out  into  the  salon  to  meet 
the  polite  representative  of  the  politest  of  peoples,  but  after 
a  grave  exchange  of  formal  salutations  the  situation  proved 
too  much  for  their  gravity.  They  burst  out  laughing  at 
each  other,  to  the  immense  enjoyment  of  the  bystanders,  and 
the  gloom  of  the  wee  sma'  hour  was  lifted. 

When  we  touched  at  Plymouth  that  afternoon  we  re- 
ceived a  despatch  announcing  the  death  of  Mr.  Taft's 
mother.  The  funeral  took  place  in  Cincinnati,  at  the  home 
of  Mr.  Charles  Taft,  several  days  before  we  could  reach 
New  York. 

On  our  return  to  the  United  States  we  found  that  my 
husband's  rivals  for  the  Republican  nomination  had  been 
making  great  headway.  Mr.  Roosevelt  was  quite  impatient 
at  the  loss  of  ground  that  Mr.  Taft's  candidacy  had  suf- 
fered and  he  urged  him  to  take  a  more  active  interest  in  the 
situation.  He  insisted  that  Mr.  Taft  should  change  the 
subject  of  a  speech  which  he  had  agreed  to  deliver  in  Boston 
from  the  Philippine  problem  to  a  discussion  of  the  financial 
situation  which  was  then  acute  after  the  depression  which 
had  taken  place  during  our  absence.  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
forcible  expression  was  that  the  business  and  political  public 
had  no  more  interest  in  the  Philippines  than  in  the  subject 
of  "nature  faking." 

I  cannot  go  into  the  details  of  the  preliminary  convention 

321 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

fight.  My  husband's  brother  Charles  devoted  a  full  year  to 
it,  established  headquarters  in  Ohio  and  Washington,  and 
bore  the  brunt  of  the  contest.  The  afternoon  of  the  con- 
vention when  the  voting  came,  we  all  assembled  at  my  hus- 
band's office  in  the  War  Department  and  received  the  news 
over  the  telephone  as  it  came  in.  I  have  a  series  of  photo- 
graphs, taken  by  a  friend,  of  the  expressions  on  my  hus- 
band's face  as  the  results  of  the  voting  were  being  announced. 
Soon  after  the  nomination  was  made,  on  the  first  of  July 
Mr.  Taft  resigned  from  the  Cabinet,  and  we  established  our- 
selves at  Hot  Springs,  Virginia,  where  he  spent  some  weeks 
preparing  his  address  of  acceptance.  This  he  submitted  to 
Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Mr.  Root  before  he  went  to  Cincinnati 
to  deliver  it.  Mr.  Charles  Taft  made  elaborate  prepara- 
tions to  receive  and  entertain  the  Committee  of  Announce- 
ment, and  on  a  platform  in  front  of  his  fine  old  house,  in 
Pike  Street,  on  one  of  the  hottest  days  of  the  summer,  my 
husband  delivered  his  acceptance.  We  then  returned  to 
Hot  Springs  and  spent  another  month  in  preparation  for  the 
campaign.  From  Hot  Springs  we  went  to  Middle  Bass 
Island  on  Lake  Erie  to  spend  a  week  or  more  there.  We 
then  went  to  Cincinnati.  Upon  this  latter  trip  Mr.  Taft 
made  a  good  many  speeches  from  the  platform  of  our 
car.  In  September  Mr.  Bryan's  campaign  looked  very 
hopeful.  The  opposition  of  Mr.  Gompers  and  organ- 
ised labour  seemed  formidable.  Mr.  Taft  determined 
to  meet  this  issue  fully  and  frankly.  He  was  attacked 
because  he  had  delivered  a  number  of  labour  decisions 
supposed  to  be  against  the  interest  of  labour.  He  had 
sent  to  jail,  for  six  months,  the  chief  lieutenant  of  Debs 
in  the  Debs  railway  rebellion  of  1894,  breaking  it  up  in 
Cincinnati  and  the  vicinity.  He  did  not  apologise  in  any 
way  for  the  action  he  had  taken.  A  meeting  of  the  railway 
trade  organisations  was  called  in  Chicago  at  Orchestra  Hall, 
and  there  he  explained  his  action,  defended  it,  and  avowed 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

that  were  the  same  questions  presented  to  him  again,  he 
would  do  the  same  thing  he  had  done,  and  that  he  had  no 
excuses  to  offer.  From  that  point  he  made  a  long  trip  in 
the  West,  upon  which  I  did  not  accompany  him.  I  re- 
mained in  Cincinnati  with  Mrs.  Charles  Taft  and  my  sister 
Mrs.  Anderson.  It  was  the  first  political  campaign  in  which 
Mr.  Taft  was  a  candidate  before  the  people.  The  reports 
that  came  indicated  that  he  had  lost  his  voice,  and  I  was 
greatly  concerned  lest  he  might  break  down  in  his  strenuous 
labours  and  new  experience.  The  ups  and  downs  of  such 
a  campaign,  the  prophecies,  the  hopes,  the  fears  aroused  by 
favourable  and  opposing  newspapers  were  all  new  and  try- 
ing to  me,  and  in  a  way  I  think  I  was  under  as  great  a  nerv- 
ous strain  as  my  husband  was,  without  the  steadying  help 
of  the  hardest  kind  of  work.  However  as  the  campaign 
drew  near  to  a  close,  the  Republican  confidence  grew 
stronger  and  stronger,  so  when  we  were  assembled  finally 
under  the  hospitable  roof  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  Taft, 
with  a  company  of  friends  to  receive  the  dispatches  on  elec- 
tion night,  the  news  of  the  great  success  that  came  did  not 
surprise  us. 


323 


CHAPTER  XVI 

PRESIDENT    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

SHORTLY  after  my  husband's  election,  having  spent  a 
couple  of  restful  weeks  at  Hot  Springs,  Virginia,  we  went 
to  Augusta,  Georgia,  and  took  the  old  house  known  as 
the  Terrett  Cottage,  near  the  Bon  Air  Hotel.  To  me  the 
weeks  we  spent  there  were  exceptionally  happy  ones  and  I 
should  like  to  mention  each  friend — friends  then  and  friends 
still — who  contributed  to  our  constant  enjoyment,  but  there 
were  too  many  of  them  and  their  kindnesses  too  numerous. 

Mr.  Taft,  of  course,  immediately  became  engrossed  in  the 
difficulties  of  securing  a  Cabinet  which  would  satisfy  every- 
body and  disappoint  none, — an  impossibility, — as  well  as 
a  thousand  and  one  other  matters  not  connected  in  any  way 
with  the  daily  games  of  golf  on  Augusta's  sandy  links 
which  attracted  such  wide  attention.  But  even  then  my 
own  problems  became  to  me  paramount  and  I  began  to  give 
them  my  almost  undivided  attention  and  to  neglect  the 
political  affairs  which  had  for  many  years  interested  me  so 
intensely.  Perhaps  with  my  husband  safely  elected  I  con- 
sidered all  important  affairs  satisfactorily  settled.  At  any 
rate  I  found  little  time  or  inclination  at  the  moment  to  worry 
about  who  should  have  the  high  offices  in  the  new  President's 
gift,  or  what  policies  should  be  pursued  during  his  adminis- 
tration. 

At  my  request  Captain  Archibald  Butt  came  down  to 
Augusta  to  consult  with  me  as  to  changes  I  wished  to  make 
in  the  White  House  service,  and  together  we  went  over  the 
whole  situation.  As  President  Roosevelt's  aide  he  knew  the 
whole  lexicon  of  customary  White  House  social  formalities. 

I  had  been  a  member  of  Washington's  official  family  for 
five  years  and  knew  as  well  as  need  be  the  various  phases 
of  the  position  I  was  about  to  assume,  so  my  plans  were 

324 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

not  so  difficult  to  put  into  f orm,  however  difficult  I  may  have 
found  them  to  put  into  execution. 

We  made  a  trip  to  Panama  in  February  before  the  Inau- 
guration and  did  not  reach  Washington  until  the  end  of  the 
month  when  we  went  to  stay  with  our  friends,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
William  J.  Boardman,  and  their  daughter,  Miss  Mabel 
Boardman,  at  their  residence  on  Dupont  Circle.  We  spent 
with  them  a  busy  week  as  the  recipients  of  varied  and  de- 
lightful hospitality,  which  was  terminated  by  a  splendid 
reception  in  our  honour  on  the  evening  of  the  second  of 
March. 

Captain  Butt,  who  was  to  be  continued  as  aide  to  Presi- 
dent Taft,  called  on  me  at  once  upon  my  arrival  in  Wash- 
ington to  assure  me  that  my  instructions  had  been  carried 
out  and  that  the  new  regime,  fully  organised,  would  go 
into  effect  at  the  White  House  on  the  morning  of  March 
fifth. 

Some  time  before  the  Inauguration,  indeed  shortly  after 
Mr.  Taft's  election,  President  Roosevelt  expressed  a  desire 
that  we  should  dine  with  him  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  on  the 
evening  of  the  third  of  March  and  spend  that  night  in  the 
White  House  as  their  guests.  This  was  breaking  a  prece- 
dent, but  it  was  Mr.  Roosevelt's  plan  for  bidding  us  a  warm 
welcome  to  the  post  which  he  was  about  to  vacate,  and  my 
husband  accepted  with  grateful  appreciation.  My  impres- 
sion is  that  neither  Mrs.  Roosevelt  nor  I  would  have  sug- 
gested such  an  arrangement  for  this  particular  evening,  but, 
it  having  been  made  for  us,  we  naturally  acquiesced. 

The  third  of  March,  a  stormy  day,  was  filled  with  innu- 
merable minor  engagements  and  small  incidents,  with  in- 
structions and  counter-instructions  and,  especially,  with 
weather  predictions  and  counter-predictions,  so  it  was  not 
until  shortly  before  eight  o'clock  that  Mr.  Taft  and  I,  hav- 
ing dressed  for  dinner,  arrived  at  the  White  House.  The 
other  guests  at  the  dinner  were  Senator  and  Mrs.  Lodge, 

325 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Senator  and  Mrs.  Root,  Admiral  and  Mrs.  Cowles,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Nicholas  Longworth  and  Miss  Mabel  Boardman. 

Now  there  is  always  bound  to  be  a  sadness  about  the  end 
of  an  administration,  no  matter  how  voluntarily  the  retiring 
President  may  leave  office,  no  matter  how  welcome  the  new 
President  and  his  family  may  be.  Mrs.  Roosevelt  seemed 
depressed,  not,  I  am  sure,  over  the  prospect  of  leaving  the 
White  House, — Presidents'  wives  are  always  given  plenty 
of  time  to  prepare  themselves  for  that  event, — but  for  other 
reasons  which  one  easily  could  surmise.  Her  husband  and 
son  were  about  to  start  for  a  long  and,  possibly,  dangerous 
trip  into  the  jungles  of  Africa,  and  she  was  looking  forward 
to  a  year  of  anxiety.  She  was  leaving  a  full  and  busy  life ; 
she  had  occupied  her  high  position  for  nearly  eight  years, 
during  which  she  had  made  a  host  of  friends,  and  a  great 
number  of  them  had  called  during  the  afternoon  to  say  fare- 
well and  to  express  their  deep  regret  at  her  departure.  I 
knew  all  of  these  things,  realised  their  depressing  effect  and 
sympathised  with  her  deeply.  The  President  and  Mr.  Taf t, 
seconded  by  other  guests,  did  their  best  with  stories  and  con- 
versation, made  as  general  as  possible,  to  lighten  the  occa- 
sion, but  their  efforts  was  not  entirely  successful. 

As  my  husband  had  an  engagement  to  attend  a  "smoker" 
which  was  being  given  to  him  at  the  New  Willard  Hotel 
by  a  large  gathering  of  Yale  men,  the  party  broke  up  very 
early  and,  as  soon  as  the  last  of  the  guests  had  gone,  I  went 
immediately  to  my  rooms.  We  had  been  assigned  to  the 
suite  in  the  southeast  corner,  known  in  the  White  House  as 
the  Blue  Bedroom. 

This  Blue  Bedroom  gave  me  food  for  interesting  reflec- 
tion. Conspicuous,  under  the  mantel  against  the  side  wall, 
I  found,  on  a  bronze  plate,  the  following  inscription  (which 
I  read  as  I  struggled  with  my  hooks)  :  "In  this  room  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  signed  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  of  Jan- 
uary 1,  1863,  whereby  four  million  slaves  were  given  their 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

freedom  and  slavery  forever  prohibited  in  these  United 
States."  It  is  only  a  state  bedroom  now,  having  been  made 
so  by  the  plans  of  the  McKim  restoration  which  was  accom- 
plished during  the  Roosevelt  administration,  but  it  was  once 
Lincoln's  Cabinet  room,  a  room  in  which  he  lived  through 
many  terrible  days  during  the  Civil  War.  It  seemed  strange 
to  spend  my  first  night  in  the  White  House  surrounded  by 
such  ghosts. 

I  went  to  bed  reasonably  early,  hoping  that  I  might  have  a 
good,  long  sleep  and  get  up  refreshed  and  ready  for  an  event- 
ful day.  But  the  press  of  circumstances  was  against  me. 
My  mind  was  never  more  wide  awake.  In  spite  of  my  deter- 
mination to  rest,  I  went  carefully  over  the  whole  Inaugural 
programme.  I  wondered  if  this  had  been  done,  if  that  had 
been  attended  to.  I  worried  over  many  petty  details  with 
which  I  had  no  reason  to  be  concerned.  I  suppose  I  must 
have  been  excited,  a  condition  quite  rare  with  me,  but  then, 
too,  the  weather  had  something  to  do  with  it.  Never  was 
seen  such  a  night  in  Washington.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  Mr.  Moore,  the  Chief  of  the  Weather  Bureau,  had 
prophesied  that  the  storm  of  the  third  would  pass  and  that 
the  Fourth  of  March  would  dawn  as  clear  and  bright  as  any 
Inaugural  Committee  could  wish.  He  made  himself  very 
popular  with  the  anxious  officials,  who  were  expending  their 
energies  in  the  preparation  of  a  fair  weather  programme,  but 
his  popularity  was  short  lived.  He  afterward  learnedly  ex- 
plained that  some  wholly  unprecedented  thing  had  hap- 
pened in  the  wind  currents,  causing  a  "flareback" — what- 
ever that  may  be.  It  was  a  memorable  "flareback"  in  any 
event,  not  to  be  forgotten  by  those  who  were  so  seriously  in- 
convenienced by  its  results. 

After  I  had  fallen  asleep  in  the  early  morning  hours,  think- 
ing— with  faith  in  the  prophet — to  wake  up  and  find  a  smil- 
ing world,  I  was  roused  by  loud,  crackling  reports  which 
seemed  to  be  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  my  windows.  I 

327 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

got  up  and  looked  out.  It  was  light  enough  for  me  to  see 
that  the  world  was  ice-bound  and  that  the  storm,  instead  of 
abating,  had  increased  in  violence.  The  crackling  I  had 
heard  was  the  noise  of  twigs  and  tree  limbs  breaking  with 
the  weight  of  the  ice  which  encased  them.  It  didn't  look 
hopeful  for  the  Inaugural  Ceremonies,  and  I  had  a  ludicrous 
vision  of  a  haughty,  gold-laced  parade  sliding,  rather  than 
marching  with  measured  precision,  down  Pennsylvania  Ave- 
nue, striving  to  maintain  its  dignity  while  it  spasmodically 
lost  its  footing.  But  mine  was  rueful  mirth. 

In  the  morning  Mr.  Taft  found  President  Roosevelt  in 
the  great  hall  below,  genially  alert. 

"Well,  Will,"  he  exclaimed,  "the  storm  will  soon  be  over. 
It  isn't  a  regular  storm.  It's  nature's  echo  of  Senator  Rain- 
er's  denunciations  of  me.  As  soon  as  I  am  out  where  I  can 
do  no  further  harm  to  the  Constitution  it  will  cease." 

"You're  wrong,"  said  Will;  "it  is  my  storm.  I  always 
said  it  would  be  a  cold  day  when  I  got  to  be  President  of  the 
United  States." 

It  was  really  very  serious.  Railroad  and  telegraphic 
communications  were  paralysed  all  along  the  Atlantic  Coast. 
Wires  were  down  in  every  direction  and  traffic  of  all  kinds 
was  at  a  practical  standstill.  Thousands  of  people,  on  their 
way  to  Washington  for  the  Inauguration,  were  tied  up  at 
points  outside  the  city  and  it  was  impossible  for  awhile  even 
to  get  a  telegram  in  or  out.  However,  Inaugurations  do 
not  wait  for  fair  weather  and  the  programme  had  to  pro- 
ceed. 

About  half  past  ten  I  saw  the  President  and  the  President- 
elect, in  a  closed  carriage,  accompanied  by  Senators  Knox 
and  Bacon  of  the  Inaugural  Committee,  and  a  brilliant 
mounted  escort,  start  on  their  slippery  way  toward  the  Capi- 
tol. The  Inauguration  ceremonies  would  not  take  place 
until  twelve  o'clock,  but  there  were  a  number  of  bills  wait- 
ing for  the  signature  of  Mr.  Roosevelt,  and  it  was  necessary 

328 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

for  him  to  go  early  to  the  office  of  the  President  at  the  Capitol 
to  attend  to  this  and  other  final  business  details. 

Before  they  left  the  White  House  it  had  not  yet  been 
decided  whether  or  not  the  Inauguration  would  take  place 
out  of  doors.  Mr.  Taft  regretted  exceedingly  the  necessity 
for  disappointing  thousands  of  people,  but  at  the  same  time 
he  recognised  the  danger  of  exposing  the  crowds  to  the  wet 
and  penetrating  cold,  and  he  considered,  especially,  the  im- 
possibility of  asking  Chief  Justice  Fuller,  who  was  then 
over  seventy  years  old  and  very  frail,  to  brave  a  blizzard, 
even  for  the  purpose  of  administering  a  Presidential  oath. 
However,  he  decided  to  wait  until  the  weather  had  given 
its  ultimate  indication  before  changing  the  programme.  He 
said  afterward  that  as  he  drove  to  the  Capitol  there  were 
many  brave  citizens  in  the  streets  who  gave  voice  to  as  hearty 
cheers  as  could  possibly  be  expected  under  the  circumstances. 

I  was  being  taken  care  of  by  Captain  Archibald  Butt,  so  I 
had  nothing  except  the  weather  to  worry  about.  With  a 
last  hopeless  look  out  of  doors  I  proceeded  to  don  my  In- 
auguration finery,  feeling  duly  thankful  that  it  was  not  too 
springlike  in  its  character.  The  newspapers  say  I  wore  a 
purple  satin  suit,  and  a  small  hat  trimmed  with  gold  lace 
and  a  high  white  aigrette.  This  is  as  good  a  description  as 
any,  though  it  might  have  been  more  flattering,  considering 
the  importance  I  attached  to  the  subject.  I  remember  the 
hat  perfectly.  The  aigrette  was  not  quite  as  high  as  it 
started  out  to  be.  It  had  nearly  met  an  untimely  end  at  a 
reception  the  day  before  where  it  collided  with  a  lighted 
gas-jet.  Fortunately  it  was  put  out  before  it  was  greatly 
damaged,  but  it  had  to  be  trimmed  down  some,  and  I  im- 
agined that  it  exuded  a  faint  odour  of  burning  feathers. 

At  least  two  years  before  the  election,  when  no  one  could 
anticipate  who  would  be  the  next  President,  President  Roose- 
velt had  announced  at  a  Cabinet  meeting  that  he  did  not  in- 
tend to  ride  back  to  the  White  House  with  his  successor.  It 

329 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

was  a  precedent  which  he  did  not  like  and  which  he  desired 
to  break.  Mrs.  Roosevelt  went,  with  her  family  and 
friends,  directly  from  the  White  House  to  the  station  to 
wait  for  her  husband  to  join  her  after  the  Inauguration. 
It  was  about  half  past  eleven  when  Captain  Butt  and  I 
started  in  a  limousine  for  the  Capitol  where  we  arrived  to 
find  the  "scene  set"  for  the  ceremonies  in  the  Senate  Cham- 
ber. 

Our  children  were  already  in  the  gallery,  waiting  eagerly. 
It  was  an  event  in  their  young  lives  never  to  be  forgotten, 
and  I  believe  that  Robert  and  Helen  were  in  properly  re- 
ceptive moods.  My  son  Charlie,  however,  seems  not  to 
have  been  so  confident.  Charlie  is  a  great  lover  of  adven- 
ture stories  and  it  is  a  favourite  tradition  in  the  family  now 
that  he  carried  with  him  to  the  Senate  Chamber  a  copy  of 
"Treasure  Island"  with  which  to  while  away  the  time  in 
case  the  Inaugural  address  should  prove  too  long.  Charlie 
was  only  eleven  years  old  and  I  consider  it  a  great  tribute 
to  his  father's  eloquence  that  "Treasure  Island"  was  not 
opened  that  day. 

This  Inauguration  was  said  to  be,  by  persons  who  had 
seen  many,  one  of  the  most  impressive  ceremonies  that  ever 
opened  the  administration  of  a  President.  The  oath  of 
office  is  usually  administered  and  the  Inaugural  address  de- 
livered from  a  large  platform  erected  in  front  of  the  Capi- 
tol before  which  ten  thousand  people  can  assemble.  But 
the  ten  thousand  people  are  sure  to  have  been  waiting  in 
a  massed  crowd  for  an  hour  or  more ;  they  are  always  tired 
and  uncomfortable,  so  when  they  finally  discover  that  few 
of  them  can  really  hear  anything,  and  that  they  have  seen 
all  there  is  to  be  seen,  they  begin  to  move  about  and  talk, 
the  noise  and  agitation  greatly  detracting  from  the  impres- 
siveness  of  the  ceremony.  Because  my  husband's  Inaugura- 
tion took  place  in  the  Senate  Chamber  it  was  no  less  "in 
the  sight  of  all  the  people."  There  was  room  on  the  floor 

330 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

of  the  Chamber  for  the  whole  official  personnel  of  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  resident  in  Washington. 
There  were  the  retiring  President  and  his  Cabinet,  the  Jus- 
tices of  the  Supreme  Court  in  their  robes  of  office,  the  Sen- 
ate and  the  House  of  Representatives,  besides  the  foreign 
Ambassadors  and  the  whole  Diplomatic  Corps  in  their  bril- 
liant uniforms,  while  the  galleries  were  crowded  with  offi- 
cial families  and  a  substantial  number  of  unofficial  audi- 
tors. 

It  was  a  great  presence;  and  the  taking  of  the  oath  and 
the  delivering  of  the  Inaugural  address  before  assembled 
national  authority  and  the  world's  representatives,  in  a  sol- 
emn silence  in  which  every  word  could  be  heard,  left  a  deep 
impression. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  Taft  had  finished  speaking  Mr.  Roose- 
velt walked  rapidly  up,  and  giving  his  hand  a  mighty  grasp, 
said  something  which  sounded  like  "Bully  speech,  old 
man!"  and  hurried  out  of  the  Chamber  accompanied  by 
members  of  his  Cabinet  who  were  to  see  him  off  at  the 
station.  My  husband  told  me  afterward  that  what  he 
really  said  was:  "God  bless  you,  old  man.  It  is  a  great 
state  document." 

Since  the  ex-President  was  not  going  to  ride  back  to  the 
White  House  with  his  successor,  I  decided  that  I  would. 
No  President's  wife  had  ever  done  it  before,  but  as  long  as 
precedents  were  being  disregarded  I  thought  it  might  not 
be  too  great  a  risk  for  me  to  disregard  this  one.  Of  course, 
there  was  objection.  Some  of  the  Inaugural  Committee 
expressed  their  disapproval,  but  I  had  my  way  and  in  spite 
of  protests  took  my  place  at  my  husband's  side. 

By  the  time  the  Inauguration  ceremonies  were  concluded 
the  skies  had  cleared  and  the  sun  had  come  out.  Mr.  Taft 
left  the  Senate  Chamber  with  the  Committee,  followed  by 
the  assembled  dignitaries  in  the  order  of  precedence.  With 
Captain  Butt  I  hurried  from  the  gallery  and  joined 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

him  in  the  great  hall  under  the  Dome,  on  his  way  to  the 
platform  on  the  North  Side  where  the  Inauguration  would 
have  taken  place  but  for  the  weather.  In  front  of  the 
temporary  structure  many  people  had  gathered,  and  as 
we  descended  to  the  front  they  called  for  the  new  President. 
In  response  he  stepped  to  the  platform  where  the  Inaugural 
oath  was  to  have  been  administered,  and  bowed  repeatedly. 

A  platoon  of  mounted  Police  and  our  escort,  the  Cleve- 
land City  Troop,  with  their  elaborate  and  beautiful  uni- 
forms somewhat  bedraggled  by  the  morning's  sleet  and 
mud,  met  us  at  the  steps  leading  down  from  the  platform. 
We  entered  the  official  coach  and  four  and  were  slowly 
driven  down  through  the  Capitol  grounds  to  Pennsylvania 
Avenue,  and  thence  to  the  White  House.  As  I  have  said, 
the  clouds  had  rolled  by;  the  day  was  cold  but  bright;  the 
expected  and  expectant  crowds  were  thronging  the  side- 
walks and  filling  the  stands,  and  our  greeting  from  them 
was  all  that  my  fancy  had  pictured  it. 

For  me  that  drive  was  the  proudest  and  happiest  event 
of  Inauguration  Day.  Perhaps  I  had  a  little  secret  elation 
in  thinking  that  I  was  doing  something  which  no  woman 
had  ever  done  before.  I  forgot  the  anxieties  of  the  pre- 
ceding night;  the  consternation  caused  by  the  fearful 
weather;  and  every  trouble  seemed  swept  aside.  My  re- 
sponsibilities had  not  yet  begun  to  worry  me,  and  I  was  able 
to  enjoy,  almost  to  the  full,  the  realisation  that  my  hus- 
band was  actually  President  of  the  United  States  and  that 
it  was  this  fact  which  the  cheering  crowds  were  acclaiming. 

There  was  nobody  at  the  White  House  to  bid  us  wel- 
come except  the  official  staff  and  some  of  our  own  guests. 
But  it  didn't  matter.  There  is  never  any  ceremony  about 
moving  into  the  White  House.  You  just  drive  up  and 
walk  in, — and  there  you  are.  The  aides  and  ushers  who 
greeted  us  at  the  entrance,  treated  our  occupation  of  our 
new  residence  so  much  as  a  matter  of  course  that  I  could  not 

332 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

help  but  feel  something  as  Cinderella  must  have  felt  when 
her  mice  footmen  bowed  her  into  her  coach  and  four  and 
behaved  just  as  if  they  had  conducted  her  to  a  Court  Ball 
every  night  of  her  life.  I  stood  for  a  moment  over  the 
great  brass  seal,  bearing  the  national  coat-of-arms,  which  is 
sunk  in  the  floor  in  the  middle  of  the  entrance  hall.  "The 
Seal  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,"  I  read  around 
the  border,  and  now — that  meant  my  husband! 

But  I  could  not  linger  long  because  my  duties  as  a  hostess 
began  at  once.  I  was  not  unused  to  the  accepted  regula- 
tions of  official  life,  so,  in  spite  of  a  slight  feeling  that  the 
whole  thing  was  unreal,  I  was  not  embarrassed  as  I  walked 
into  the  great  dining-room  and  took  my  place  by  the  door 
to  receive  guests  for  the  first  time  as  mistress  of  the  White 
House. 

I  had  left  to  the  efficient  management  of  Captain  Archi- 
bald Butt  as  many  of  the  details  of  the  day's  programme  as 
was  possible.  Some  time  before  I  had  carefully  gone  over 
the 'plans  with  him,  we  had  provided  for  any  reasonable 
emergency,  and  I  knew  my  instructions  would  be  carried 
out.  Captain  Butt — later  Major  Butt — had  been  military 
aide  to  President  Roosevelt;  we  had  known  him  well,  both 
in  the  Philippines  and  in  Washington,  and  we  were  glad  to 
have  the  opportunity  of  continuing  him  in  that  capacity. 
Whatever  Major  Butt  did  was  done  faultlessly — always. 
During  the  three  years  he  was  with  us — day  in  and  day  out, 
upon  every  possible  occasion,  in  the  closest  intimacy — I 
never  ceased  to  wonder  at  his  genius  for  work,  his  compre- 
hensive grasp  of  important  matters  and  of  small  details, 
his  extraordinary  accuracy.  His  very  presence  inspired  the 
utmost  confidence.  Archie  Butt,  as  everybody  called  him, 
became  our  close  and  dearly  loved  friend.  Indeed,  we  felt 
that  he  belonged  to  us,  and  nothing  in  all  our  experience 
ever  touched  us  as  deeply  as  the  tragedy  of  his  death.  Re- 
turning from  a  short  vacation  abroad,  he  went  down  on  the 

333 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Titanic^  facing  death  like  a  soldier,  after  the  lives  of  nearly 
all  the  women  and  children  had  been  saved. 

We  had  invited  a  large  number  of  people  to  the  usual 
Inaugural  luncheon.  The  cook  and  several  of  the  staff 
of  servants  were  to  accompany  Mrs.  Roosevelt  to  Oyster 
Bay,  but  they  remained  until  the  afternoon  of  the  Fourth 
when  the  staff  I  had  engaged  were  installed.  There  are  a 
few  old,  official  servants  who  remain  in  the  house  from  one 
administration  to  another,  keeping  in  operation  an  uninter- 
rupted household  routine,  so  there  was  no  reason  why  the 
Inaugural  luncheon  should  not  be  carried  through  with  the 
same  smoothness  and  despatch  to  be  expected  on  ordinary 
occasions.  But  again  we  reckoned  without  the  weather. 
The  difficulties  of  traffic,  added  to  the  crush  on  the  avenues, 
made  it  impossible  for  our  guests  to  arrive  on  time  and  they 
continued  to  straggle  in  throughout  the  whole  afternoon, 
each  one  wishing  to  apologise  in  person  and  make  special 
explanation.  This,  of  course,  made  anything  like  system- 
atic reception  out  of  the  question  and  the  result  was  that  the 
luncheon  really  ran  into  and  became  a  part  of  the  tea  for 
my  husband's  classmates  of  Yale,  which  was  scheduled  for 
five  o'clock.  There  was  some  confusion,  but  much  good- 
will and  frank  enjoyment  and  the  fact  that  the  President 
was  not  there  to  receive  his  classmates  caused  nothing  more 
than  a  few  repetitions  of,  by  that  time,  familiar  comments 
on  the  elements. 

Mr.  Taft  was  reviewing  the  Inaugural  Parade  and  the 
last  of  it  did  not  pass  the  reviewing  stand  until  after  night- 
fall. He  came  in,  however,  in  time  to  exchange  greetings 
with  old-time,  enthusiastic  friends,  the  members  of  the  Yale 
class  of  '78,  and  to  hold  them  longer  than  they  had  intended 
to  remain.  When  the  last  of  them  had  wished  us  God- 
speed and  said  good-bye,  we  stood,  the  five  of  us, — my  hus- 
band, my  three  children  and  I, — alone  in  the  big  state  din- 
ing-room, and  tried  to  realise  that,  for  the  first  time,  the 

334 


(g)  Harris  &  Ewing1. 

THE     PRIVATE    DINING-ROOM     OF    THE    WHITE     HOUSE,    AND    THE 

FAMILY  SITTING-ROOM  AT  THE  END  OF  THE   LONG 

UPSTAIRS    CORRIDOR 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

White  House  was  really  our  Home.  The  great  walnut- 
panelled  room,  with  its  silvered  chandeliers  and  big  moose 
heads,  seemed  very  empty  with  only  the  Taft  family  in  it, 
after  all  the  clatter  and  chatter  that  had  been  sounding 
there  all  day.  We  gazed  at  each  other  for  a  moment,  with 
slightly  lost  expressions  on  our  faces,  and  then  nature  as- 
serted herself  in  the  new  President. 

"Let's  go  up  stairs,  my  dears,  and  sit  down!"  said  he. 

Poor  man,  he  had  not  experienced  the  blissful  sensation 
of  sitting  down  since  early  that  morning;  so  we  proceeded 
out  to  the  elevator,  which  Charlie,  true  to  his  boy  nature, 
had,  of  course,  already  learned  to  operate.  For  once,  I  am 
glad  to  say,  it  did  not  stick  between  floors.  This  was  a 
habit  to  which  it  became  addicted  in  later  days,  a  habit  it 
was  sure  to  indulge  on  occasions  when  the  President  proudly 
used  it  for  taking  a  large  party  of  men  upstairs  after  dinner. 
But  this  time  he  was  able,  without  delay,  to  reach  the  best 
easy-chair  in  the  sitting-room  where  he  remained  until  I 
prodded  him  once  more  into  activity  by  reminding  him  that 
he  must  get  into  evening  clothes  else  the  Inaugural  Ball 
could  not  take  place. 

Not  having  been  taxed  so  greatly,  I  was  not  yet  ready  to 
succumb  to  fatigue ;  besides  I  was  now  eager  to  roam  around 
the  house,  to  familiarise  myself  with  the  mysteries  of  my 
new  home  and  to  plan  the  assignment  of  rooms  among  vari- 
ous members  of  the  family  who  were  to  come  to  us  that  very 
night. 

The  second  story  of  the  White  House,  where  all  the  fam- 
ily living  rooms  are,  corresponds  in  spaciousness  with  the 
floor  below,  which,  with  its  broad  hall,  its  great  East  Room, 
its  large  reception  rooms  and  state  dining  room,  is  familiar 
to  the  public.  Upstairs  there  is  a  very  wide  hall  running 
the  entire  length  of  the  building.  The  rooms  occupied  by 
the  President  and  his  wife  are  in  the  south-west  corner  and 
at  that  end  of  the  house  the  hall  is  partially  partitioned  and 

335 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

screened  off  and  pleasantly  furnished  with  desks,  sofas  and 
easy-chairs  to  make  a  fairly  large  and  very  private  family 
sitting-room.  It  was  here  that  I  left  my  tired  husband 
while  I  went  on  my  first  tour  of  exploration. 

At  each  of  the  four  corners  of  the  house  there  is  a  suite; 
all  arranged  on  the  same  plan,  exactly  alike,  except  as 
to  decoration.  Each  consists  of  an  exceedingly  large  bed- 
room with  a  spacious  bath,  and  a  smaller  room  adjoining 
which  may  be  used  as  a  bedroom  or  dressing-room.  I 
went  first  into  the  large  bedroom  which  my  husband  and 
I  expected  to  occupy.  The  windows  of  this  room  look  out 
on  the  White  House  gardens  where  the  large  fountain  plays, 
and,  beyond,  on  the  Washington  Monument,  the  Potomac 
River  and  the  distant  Virginia  hills.  This,  I  think,  is  the 
most  glorious  vista  in  Washington,  which  is  a  city  of  splen- 
did vistas,  and  seeing  it  that  March  night  by  the  long  line 
of  lights  which  stretch  across  the  Potomac  bridge  and  meet 
the  lights  of  Arlington,  it  was,  indeed,  inspiring. 

The  room  was  the  room  where  Lincoln  slept,  indeed, 
where  every  President  since  Jackson  has  slept.  A  tablet 
under  the  mantel  states  this  fact.  It  is  the  room  which 
must  necessarily  have  more  intimate  and  personal  associa- 
tion with  the  men  who  have  occupied  the  White  House 
than  any  other.  Other  parts  of  the  house  have  been  the 
scenes  of  great  historic  events  and  of  magnificent  hospitality, 
but  here,  one  after  another,  the  Presidents  of  the  United 
States  have  really  lived  and  been  at  home. 

Its  furnishings  have,  undoubtedly,  been  changed  many 
times  and  yet  I  found  it  to  contain  many  old  and  interest- 
ing pieces.  The  most  striking  object  in  the  room  was  an 
enormous  four-poster  bed  with  a  great  curved  canopy  of 
wood,  decorated  with  carved  and  gilded  eagles  and  uphold- 
ing heavy  draperies  of  blue  and  white  brocade.  In  this 
bed,  we  had  been  told,  the  Prince  of  Wales  slept  when  he 
visited  this  country  in  1860,  but  on  the  first  night  I  dis- 

336 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

covered  that,  whatever  its  historic  interest,  I  did  not  like  it 
as  a  bed  to  sleep  in.  I  soon  replaced  it  with  two  smaller 
mahogany  beds  and  I  dispensed  altogether  with  the  drap- 
eries. There  were  canopies  of  the  same  gilded  eagles  over 
the  windows,  and  the  curtains  suspended  from  them,  as 
well  as  the  upholstery  of  the  sofa  and  chairs,  were  of  the 
same  blue  and  white  brocade.  Some  of  the  furniture  was 
colonial,  some  Victorian.  The  colonial  furniture  in  the 
White  House  is  very  good  and  there  is  quite  a  lot  of  it  in 
all  the  bedrooms,  but  many  of  the  bureaus  and  wardrobes 
are  of  the  scarcely-to-be-called  beautiful  style  of  the  Vic- 
torian era.  I  secured  for  our  room,  later  on,  the  beds,  a 
dressing-table  and  some  chairs,  all  colonial.  These  were 
about  the  only  pieces  of  furniture  I  bought  for  the  White 
House.  I  also  substituted  heavy  chintz  for  the  brocade 
draperies  and  upholstery,  and  did  away  with  the  canopies 
entirely,  as  they  seemed  to  me  to  be  too  heavy  for  a  sleeping 
room.  The  small  room  in  the  corner  of  our  suite  Mr.  Taft 
used  for  a  dressing-room. 

The  corresponding  suite  across  the  hall  I  gave  to  Helen, 
my  daughter.  It  had  been  occupied  by  both  of  the  Misses 
Roosevelt  and  before  them,  I  believe,  by  Mrs.  McKinley. 
It  had  been  fitted  up  in  pretty  flowered  chintz  for  Miss  Ethel 
Roosevelt,  after  Miss  Alice  had  married,  and  we  left  it 
unchanged. 

I  strolled  down  the  hall,  which  contains  only  a  large  table 
and  a  few  portraits  of  Presidents  for  which  there  is  no 
wall  space  down  stairs,  and  looked  into  the  Library  which 
is  exactly  in  the  center  of  the  house  on  the  south  side.  It 
is  oval  like  the  Blue  Drawing  Room  beneath  it  and  it  is 
a  little  dark  in  the  daytime,  being  shaded  by  the  roof  of 
the  south  portico.  This  was  Mrs.  Roosevelt's  favourite 
room  and  it  had  been  fitted  most  charmingly  with  many  of 
her  own  belongings,  but  as  they  were  now  gone  and  my  own 
had  not  yet  been  moved  in,  it  looked  rather  bare.  The 

337 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

furniture  had  not  been  upholstered  for  many  years  and 
it  was  a  little  shabby.  Later  on  I  had  it  all  recovered 
and  the  walls  of  the  room  retinted,  and  when  I  had  put  in 
some  of  the  Oriental  tapestries  and  handsome  pieces  of 
furniture  which  I  had  brought  with  me  from  the  Far  East 
it  made  a  very  beautiful  and  livable  room.  We  used  it 
a  great  deal,  especially  when  there  were  guests,  but  for  the 
family  the  sitting-room  at  the  end  of  the  hall  was  always 
the  favourite  gathering  place. 

Opposite  the  Library  a  short  corridor  extends  to  the  win- 
dow under  the  roof  of  the  front  portico  and  on  each  side 
of  this  doors  open  into  smaller  bedrooms;  smaller,  that  is, 
in  comparison  with  the  four  large  ones.  Even  these  would 
be  considered  large  in,  an  ordinary  house.  One  of  them  I 
assigned  to  the  housekeeper  and  the  other  to  my  two  sons. 
The  boys'  room  was  rather  dark,  with  its  windows  directly 
under  the  roof  of  the  portico;  and  it  was  furnished,  more- 
over, in  dark  red,  a  colour  which  does  not  add  light  to  gloom- 
iness, but  the  boys  got  it  because  they  were  the  members  of 
the  family  who  would  care  the  least  and  who  would  be  the 
most  away. 

The  great  staircase  descends  from  the  central  hall  just 
beyond  these  rooms  and  facing  the  staircase  is  the  President's 
Study.  The  eastern  end  of  the  building  was  all  used  as 
offices  until  the  new  offices  were  built  and  the  house  restored 
in  accordance  with  the  original  plan.  The  Presidents  with 
large  families  must,  indeed,  have  been  in  an  uncomfortable 
situation  when  they  had  to  confine  themselves  to  the  rooms 
in  the  west  end,  the  only  rooms  then  available  for  living 
purposes.  The  facts  are  that  such  families  found  the  house 
to  be  less  commodious  than  a  "five-room  flat,"  as  the  wife  of 
one  President  expressed  it.  I  believe  the  Roosevelts,  until 
the  house  was  remodelled,  were  unable  to  accommodate  one 
guest. 

There  is  a  story  that  when  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia  was  in 

338 


©  Harris  «  Kwinu'. 

TWO  WHITE  HOUSE  BEDROOMS  SHOWING  FIXE  OLD  COLONIAL  BEDS 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Washington,  President  Roosevelt  invited  him  to  ride.  The 
Prince  accepted  and  just  before  the  appointed  hour  appeared 
at  the  White  House  in  his  street  clothes,  accompanied  by  a 
valet  bearing  his  riding  clothes.  He  had  very  naturally 
expected  to  change  at  the  White  House,  but  it  happened 
that  on  that  day  there  was  not  one  room  that  could  even  be 
prepared  for  a  Royal  dressing-room,  so  the  President  was 
compelled  to  request  His  Highness  to  return  to  the  German 
Embassy  to  change.  I  believe  this  incident  had  the  effect 
of  hastening  the  deliberations  of  the  members  of  the  Ap- 
propriations Committee  of  the  House  who  were  then  lei- 
surely figuring  on  the  amount  necessary  for  the  restora- 
tion. 

Senator  McMillan,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  Dis- 
trict Committee  in  the  Senate,  and  who,  in  his  lifetime 
was  the  leading  spirit  in  the  improvement  of  Washington, 
in  the  revival  of  the  L' Enfant  plan,  and  in  the  creation  of  a 
Commission  of  Fine  Arts  to  pass  upon  contemplated  struc- 
tures and  changes,  conferred  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt 
and  with  Senator  Allison  of  the  Appropriations  Committee, 
and  by  an  amendment  in  the  Senate,  in  the  spring  of  1902, 
to  which  Speaker  Cannon  and  the  House  Appropriations 
Committee  assented,  the  necessary  funds  for  this  restoration 
were  eventually  provided  and,  most  fortunately,  the  whole 
work  was  committed  to  Mr.  James  McKim,  of  McKim, 
Meade  and  White,  who,  among  all  the  architectural  monu- 
ments to  his  genius  which  he  left,  left  no  greater  evidence 
of  his  mastery  of  his  art  than  this.  He  added  the  grace- 
fully beautiful  terraces  on  either  side,  equipped  with  electric 
light  standards,  and  in  accord,  really,  with  the  original  plan 
of  the  house,  and  utilised  them  in  a  most  ingenious  way. 
He  made  of  the  one  on  the  west  a  very  dignified  and  con- 
venient approach,  through  the  basement,  for  large  companies 
attending  state  entertainments.  Cloak  stands  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  thousands  were  fitted  into  each  side  of  this 

339 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

passageway  and  guests  now  are  able  to  dispose  of  their  wraps 
and  proceed  to  the  staircase  leading  up  to  the  main  hall  on 
the  first  floor  without  the  slightest  interruption  or  discom- 
fort. 

The  ample  and  airy  space  beneath  the  high  portico  on  the 
south  side  was  used  for  domestic  offices  and  servants'  quar- 
ters, thus  greatly  increasing  the  capacity  of  the  house,  and 
the  construction  of  the  very  convenient  executive  office 
building,  reached  by  a  covered,  or  cloistered  passage  from 
the  White  House  basement,  was  carried  out  on  lines  so  like 
in  style  and  appearance  to  the  north  portico,  so  low  and 
classically  simple,  that  it  detracts  nothing  from  the  general 
effect  and  interferes  in  no  way  with  the  dignified  outlines 
of  the  home  of  the  Nation's  Chief  Magistrate. 

During  the  reconstruction  the  President  and  Mrs.  Roose- 
velt lived  either  at  Oyster  Bay  or  in  a  house  a  few  steps 
from  the  White  House  on  Lafayette  Square.  Mr.  McKim 
frequently  consulted  Mrs.  Roosevelt  as  to  interior  changes 
and  many  of  her  views  were  adopted,  so  that  the  woman's 
side  of  the  new  White  House  was  well  looked  after. 

The  work  took  longer  and  cost  more  than  was  expected 
and  this  elicited  much  criticism  of  the  architect  as  well  as  of 
the  architectural  result.  His  aim  had  been  to  make  as  little 
outward  change  in  the  main  lines  as  possible  and  yet  to  make 
as  great  a  change  as  space  would  permit  in  interior  accom- 
modation. Considering  what  he  had  to  accomplish  his  suc- 
cess was  remarkable.  But  the  Philistines  among  the  Con- 
gressmen and  Senators,  who  don't  like  architects  anyway, 
found  much  to  complain  of.  In  their  daily  visits  to  the 
President  they  did  not,  by  Mr.  McKim' s  plan,  reach  him 
through  the  historic  front  entrance,  supported  by  the  great, 
white  pillars,  but  they  were  relegated  to  a  business  office, 
simply  and  conveniently  equipped,  and  it  offended  the  sense 
of  due  proportion  of  some  of  them  as  to  who  were  the  real 
power  in  the  government,  the  legislative  representatives 

340 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

calling  on  business  or  the  social  guests  of  the  President. 

But  now,  after  all  the  ignorance,  ill-feeling  and  prejudice 
displayed  in  the  most  unjust  attacks  upon  Mr.  McKim,  those 
whose  judgment  is  worth  anything,  and  that  includes  the 
whole  body  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  rejoice  in 
their  hearts  that  the  greatest  of  American  architects  was 
given  a  free  hand  to  adapt  to  modern  needs,  but  also  to  pre- 
serve in  its  dignity  and  beauty,  this  most  appropriate  offi- 
cial home  of  the  Head  of  the  Republic. 

These  observations  may  not  be  in  place  just  here,  but  they 
occurred  to  me  on  the  first  evening  of  my  occupancy  of  the 
White  House,  and  I  congratulated  myself  that  I  was  to  en- 
joy the  results  of  that  successful  reconstruction  of  what  had 
been  a  most  uncomfortable  mansion. 

The  President's  Study,  as  it  is  now  called,  is  the  only 
room  of  the  old  Executive  offices  which  has  not  been  changed 
into  a  sleeping  room.  It  is  now  the  President's  more  per- 
sonal office  where  he  can  receive  callers  more  privately  than 
in  the  new  office  building.  A  small  bronze  tablet  under  the 
mantel  tells,  in  simple  words,  the  history  of  the  room. 
Here  all  the  Presidents  since  Johnson  held  their  Cabinet 
meetings,  and  here  the  Protocol  suspending  hostilities  with 
Spain  was  signed  in  McKinley's  administration.  A  picture 
of  that  event,  painted  by  Chartran,  hangs  in  the  room  and 
conveys  a  remarkably  vivid  impression  of  the  men  who  had 
a  part  in  it.  The  faces  of  President  McKinley,  of  Justice 
Day,  who  was  then  Secretary  of  State,  and  of  M.  Cambon, 
the  French  Ambassador,  are  especially  striking.  This  room, 
in  which  there  had  been  a  great  many  personal  mementos 
gathered  by  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  his  interesting  career,  also 
looked,  after  their  removal,  rather  bare  on  that  evening  of 
my  first  inspection  and,  save  for  the  pictures  and  the  tablet, 
had  little  in  its  character  to  make  real  in  one's  mind  the  great 
events  that  it  had  witnessed.  Yet,  as  I  roamed  around  that 
evening,  the  whole  house  was  haunted  for  me  by  memories 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

of  the  great  men  and  the  charming  women  whose  most  thril- 
ling moments,  perhaps,  had  been  spent  under  its  roof,  and 
I  was  unable  to  feel  that  such  a  commonplace  person  as  I 
had  any  real  place  there.  This  feeling  passed,  however,  for 
though  I  was  always  conscious  of  the  character  which  a  cen- 
tury of  history  had  impressed  upon  the  White  House,  it 
came,  nevertheless,  to  feel  as  much  like  home  as  any  house 
I  have  ever  occupied.  That  Study,  which  seemed  at  the 
moment  so  much  a  part  of  American  history  and  so  little 
even  a  temporary  possession  of  the  Taft  family,  was  later 
hung  with  amusing  cartoons  illustrative  of  events  in  Mr. 
Taf t's  career,  with  photographs  of  his  friends,  and  with  what 
are  called  at  Yale  "memorabilia?'  of  his  varied  experiences, 
and  it  became,  in  time,  for  us  all,  peculiarly  his  room. 

The  Blue  Bedroom,  where  we  had  slept  the  night  before 
as  guests  of  the  Roosevelts,  belongs  to  one  of  the  four  cor- 
ner suites  and  I  planned  to  give  it  to  my  sister  Eleanor,  Mrs. 
Louis  More,  and  her  husband,  while  the  smaller  room  in  the 
same  suite  I  assigned  to  Miss  Torrey,  our  Aunt  Delia — and 
during  our  administration  apparently  the  country's  "Aunt 
Delia."  She  had  been  staying  with  us  at  the  Boardmans' 
and  was  probably  enjoying  the  Inauguration  of  her  nephew 
more  than  anyone  in  Washington.  The  last  of  the  suites, 
which  was  exactly  like  the  blue  suite  except  that  it  was  hung 
in  pink  brocade,  I  gave  to  my  husband's  sister  and  brother- 
in-law,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Edwards  of  San  Diego. 

When  I  had  finished  my  explorations  and  arrangements 
I  glanced  at  the  clock  in  the  Pink  Room  and  discovered  that 
I  had  no  time  to  lose  before  beginning  that  important  toilet 
which  would  make  me  ready  for  the  Inaugural  Ball,  the 
last,  but  not  the  least  of  the  Inaugural  functions. 

I  hurried  to  my  room  and  found  the  hairdresser  waiting 
for  me.  I  sat  down  with  a  feeling  of  great  comfort  and 
submitted  myself  with  hopeful  patience  to  her  ministra- 
tions. But  she  was  so  overcome  by  the  greatness  of  the  oc- 

342 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

casion  that,  although  she  was  quite  accustomed  to  the  idio- 
syncrasies of  my  hair,  she  was  not  able  to  make  it  "go  right" 
until  she  had  put  it  up  and  taken  it  down  twice,  and  even 
then  it  was  not  as  perfectly  done  as  I  had  fondly  hoped  it 
would  be.  I  believe  this  hairdressing  process  made  me  more 
nervous  than  anything  else  in  the  whole  course  of  the  day. 

While  it  was  going  on,  my  new  gown  lay  glittering  on 
the  bed,  where  the  maid  had  placed  it,  and  I  was  very  anx- 
ious to  get  into  it.  It  had  given  me  several  days  of  awful 
worry.  It  was  made  in  New  York  and  the  dressmaker  had 
promised  that  I  should  have  it  at  least  a  week  before  it 
was  needed  so  that  any  necessary  changes  could  easily  be 
made.  But  day  after  day  went  by  and  no  dress, — the  third 
of  March  arrived  and  then  I  began,  frantically,  to  telegraph. 
I  finally  received  the  reassuring  advice  that  the  dress  was 
on  its  way  in  the  hands  of  a  special  messenger,  but  the  spe- 
cial messenger  was,  with  many  other  people,  held  up  for 
hours  by  the  blizzard  and  did  not  arrive  at  the  Boardmans' 
until  after  I  had  left  for  the  White  House,  wondering,  dis- 
consolately, what  on  earth  I  should  wear  to  the  Inaugural 
Ball  if  it  happened  that  the  messenger  couldn't  get  there  at 
all.  The  suspense  had  been  fearful  and  it  was  a  com- 
fortable relief  to  see  the  gown  all  spread  out  and  waiting 
for  me. 

It  was  made  of  heavy  white  satin  which  I  had  sent  to 
Tokyo  to  have  embroidered,  and  the  people  who  did  the 
work  surely  knew  their  art.  A  pattern  of  golden-rod  was 
outlined  by  a  silver  thread  and  cleverly  fitted  into  the  long 
lines  of  the  gown,  and  no  other  trimming  had  been  used 
except  some  lace  with  which  the  low-cut  bodice  was  finished. 
It  fitted  me  admirably  and  I  hoped  that,  in  spite  of  all  the 
mishaps  in  my  preparations,  I  looked  my  best  as  I  descended 
from  the  White  House  automobile  at  the  entrance  of  the 
Pension  Office. 

The  Pension  Office  was  not  built  for  balls,  Inaugural  or 

343 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

otherwise,  and  on  the  evening  of  March  Fourth,  1909,  after 
a  day  of  melting  sleet  and  snow,  the  entrance  was  not  espe- 
cially inviting.  Neither  was  the  dressing-room  which  had 
been  assigned  to  me.  I  suppose  that  for  years  it  had  rung 
with  the  ceaseless  click  of  scores  of  typewriters  and  that  its 
walls  had  beheld  no  more  elaborate  costume  than  a  business 
blouse  and  skirt  since  the  occasion  of  the  last  Inaugural 
Ball  which  had  marked  the  beginning  of  the  second  Roose- 
velt administration  four  years  before.  But  as  I  needed  to 
do  very  little  "prinking"  it  really  didn't  matter  and  I  quickly 
rejoined  the  President  and  proceeded,  on  his  arm,  to  the 
Presidential  Box,  this  being  a  small  round  gallery  above 
the  main  entrance  of  the  great  ballroom  which  is  itself,  in 
everyday  life,  the  principal  workroom  of  the  Pension  Office. 

A  brilliant,  an  almost  kaleidoscopic  scene  spread  before 
us.  The  hall  is  of  tremendous  proportions,  pillared  with 
red  marble  and  with  walls  tinted  in  the  same  colour.  Every 
inch  of  floor  space  seemed  to  be  occupied.  The  bright 
colours  and  the  gleam  of  women's  gowns  met  and  clashed, 
or  harmonised  with  the  brighter  colours  of  diplomatic  uni- 
forms. Officers  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  in  full  regalia, 
mingled  with  the  hundreds  of  men  in  the  plain  black  of  for- 
mal evening  dress.  It  was  a  wonderful  glittering  throng, 
more  magnificent  than  any  I  have  ever  seen.  It  was  not 
possible  to  distinguish  individuals  except  in  the  space  di- 
rectly below  the  box,  but  there,  as  I  looked  down,  I  saw 
a  great  semi-circle  of  faces — thousands,  it  seemed  to  me — 
smilingly  upturned  toward  us.  The  din  of  human  voices 
was  terrific ;  even  the  loudest  band  procurable  had  difficulty 
in  making  itself  heard.  But  the  scene  was  so  gay  in  colour, 
and  the  faces  that  gazed  up  at  us  were  so  friendly  and  happy 
that  I  felt  elated  and  not  at  all  overwhelmed. 

The  first  person  whom  my  eyes  rested  upon  in  the  box 
was  Aunt  Delia,  already  installed  in  a  chair  near  the  back 
and  drinking  in  the  scene  with  visible  pleasure.  Aunt 

344 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Delia,  at  that  time,  was  eighty-three  years  old,  but  not  for 
anything  would  she  have  missed  one  feature  of  this  crown- 
ing day  of  her  life.  Having  no  children  of  her  own,  she 
had  for  many  years  given  the  greater  part  of  her  thought  and 
interest  to  her  nephews  and  nieces,  and  she  followed  every 
step  in  my  husband's  career  with  an  absorption,  not  to  say 
an  excitement,  as  great  as  my  own.  All  day  long  she  had 
travelled  from  ceremony  to  ceremony,  conducted  by  Lieu- 
tenant Reed,  one  of  the  Naval  aides.  She  would  arrive, 
leaning  on  his  arm,  among  the  first  at  each  appointed  place, 
ready  and  eager  for  any  new  event.  She  didn't  miss  even 
the  late  supper  of  birds,  salads  and  ices  which  was  served  to 
us  later  that  night,  before  we  left  the  Ball.  And  now  she 
sat  in  the  President's  Box,  her  soft,  white  hair  arranged  by 
the  best  hairdresser,  gowned  in  rich,  old-fashioned,  black 
velvet,  adorned  with  all  the  good  old  lace  which  she  had 
been  treasuring  for  years  for  an  occasion  justifying  its  dis- 
play. 

The  Vice-President  and  Mrs.  Sherman  arrived  shortly 
after  we  did  and  shared  the  box  with  us.  They  also  had 
with  them  a  large  family  party  and  were  both  so  jolly  and 
so  much  in  the  festive  spirit  that  formality  disappeared. 
Many  friends  and  officials  of  distinction  came,  in  the  course 
of  the  evening,  to  pay  their  respects;  and  members  of  our 
own  family  came  and  went  at  intervals  as  they  were  inclined. 

I  may  as  well  say  here  that  my  husband  and  I  both  came 
from  such  large  families  that  all  Washington,  at  the  time 
of  the  Inauguration,  seemed  filled  with  our  near  and  dear 
relatives.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  P.  Taft  took  a  comfort- 
able house  for  ten  days,  while  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry  Taft 
and  Mr.  Horace  Taft  were  at  the  New  Willard. 

About  eleven  o'clock  the  President  and  I  descended  to  the 
ballroom  floor,  followed  by  Vice-President  and  Mrs.  Sher- 
man and,  as  is  the  custom,  proceeded  slowly  down  the  length 
of  the  hall  and  back  between  the  closely  packed  rows  of  peo- 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

pie  who  stood  aside  to  make  room  for  our  promenade.  This 
ceremonious  parade  was  not  as  trying  for  me  as  it  may  sound, 
for  not  only  did  I  have  the  reassurance  of  my  husband's  arm, 
but  the  crowd  was  too  large  to  seem  very  personal.  So  I 
was  quite  serene,  except  for  frequent  spasms  of  anxiety  lest 
my  gorgeous  length  of  train  be  stepped  on. 

Except  for  this  ceremony,  and  for  a  short  supper  which 
was  served  to  us  and  a  few  invited  guests  in  a  private  room, 
the  President  and  I  remained  in  the  box  until  shortly  after 
one  o'clock  when  we  once  more  descended  and  made  our 
way  to  a  waiting  automobile  which  very  quickly  whisked  us 
away  to  much  needed  rest. 

However,  I  must  still  have  had  energy  enough  left  to 
worry  over  domestic  arrangements  since  the  last  thing  I  re- 
member of  that  eventful  day  was  a  hearty  laugh  from  my 
husband  when  I  exclaimed  in  sleepy  tones:  "I  wonder 
where  we  had  all  better  have  breakfast  in  the  morning !" 


346 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE    WHITE    HOUSE 

THE  members  of  my  family,  and  especially  my  children, 
are  prone  to  indulgence  in  good-natured  personalities  and 
they  like  to  make  the  most  of  my  serious  attitude  toward  my 
domestic  responsibilities,  saying  that  I  make  them  three 
times  as  difficult  as  they  need  be  by  a  too  positive  insistence 
on  my  own  methods. 

Perhaps  I  did  make  the  process  of  adjusting  the  White 
House  routine  to  my  own  conceptions  a  shade  too  strenuous, 
but  I  could  not  feel  that  I  was  mistress  of  any  house  if  I  did 
not  take  an  active  interest  in  all  the  details  of  running  it. 

The  management  of  the  White  House  is,  of  course,  a 
larger  task  than  many  women  are  ever  called  upon  to  per- 
form, and,  incidentally,  the  same  "white  light  that  beats 
upon  a  throne"  sheds  its  sometimes  uncomfortable  radiance 
upon  the  usually  unprepared  heads  of  America's  Chief  Ex- 
ecutive and  his  family.  Accustomed  as  I  had  been  for 
years  to  publicity,  yet  it  came  as  a  sort  of  shock  to  me  that 
nearly  everything  I  did,  and  especially  my  slightest  inno- 
vation, had  what  the  reporters  call  "news  value." 

I  have  lived  too  much  in  other  countries  ever  to  under- 
estimate the  importance  of  outward  form,  yet  I  think  I  may 
claim  a  wholesome  regard  for  and  a  constant  acquiescence  in 
the  principles  of  democratic  simplicity,  though  not  the  kind 
of  "democratic  simplicity"  which  is  usually  written  in  quota- 
tion marks. 

I  made  very  few  changes,  really.  As  a  matter  of  fact  no 
President's  wife  ever  needs  to  unless  she  so  desires,  because 
the  White  House  is  a  governmental  institution  thoroughly 
equipped  and  always  in  good  running  order.  Each  new 
mistress  of  the  house  has  absolute  authority,  of  course,  and 
can  do  exactly  as  she  pleases,  just  as  she  would  in  any  other 

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home,  but  in  the  beginning  I  confined  my  efforts  largely  to 
minor  matters  connected  with  the  house  service  itself.  I 
wished  to  install  certain  members  of  the  house  personnel  of 
my  own  choosing,  and  this  I  did.  Later  I  made  some 
changes  in  a  few  important  social  usages. 

There  are  certain  duties  connected  with  the  White  House 
routine  which  have  been  performed  by  the  same  employes 
throughout  one  Administration  after  another  and  each  new 
President's  wife  finds  these  men  invaluable  and  wonders,  I 
am  sure,  how  the  White  House  could  ever  be  run  without 
them.  For  instance,  there  are  Mr.  Warren  S.  Young,  who 
has  been  for  thirty  years  the  Social  Executive  Officer,  and 
Colonel  W.  H.  Crook,  who  became  Chief  Custodian  under 
Lincoln  in  1865  and  is  holding  the  same  office  to-day.  The 
duties  of  each  of  these  men  are  delicate  in  the  extreme,  but 
they  know  their  work  down  to  the  minutest  detail  and  it 
would  be  difficult  to  measure  their  value  to  the  woman  who, 
in  public  opinion,  is  wholly  responsible  for  the  White  House. 

As  to  my  own  innovations,  I  decided  in  the  first  place  to 
have,  at  all  hours,  footmen  in  livery  at  the  White  House 
door  to  receive  visitors  and  give  instructions  to  sightseers. 
Before  my  time  there  had  been  only  "gentlemen  ushers" 
who  were  in  no  way  distinguishable  from  any  other  citizen 
and  many  a  time  I  have  seen  strangers  wander  up  to  the 
door  looking  in  vain  for  someone  to  whom  it  seemed  right 
and  proper  to  address  a  question  or  to  hand  a  visiting  card. 
The  gentlemen  ushers  I  retained,  the  head  usher,  Mr. 
Hoover,  having  become  invaluable  through  similar  service 
under  every  Administration  since  Cleveland's  first,  but  I  put 
six  coloured  men  in  blue  livery  at  the  door,  two  at  a  time, 
relieving  each  other  at  intervals,  and  I  think  many  a  timid 
visitor  has  had  reason  to  be  thankful  for  the  change. 
Incidentally  they  lend  a  certain  air  of  formal  dignity  to  the 
entrance  which,  in  my  opinion,  it  has  always  lacked. 

These  footmen  received  everybody  who  sought  to  enter 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

the  White  House.  If  it  happened  to  be  a  party  of  tourists 
they  were  directed  to  such  parts  of  the  building  as  are  open 
to  the  public  at  stated  hours;  if  it  were  a  caller,  either  social 
or  official,  he  or  she  was  conducted  to  one  of  the  drawing- 
rooms.  But  sensible  as  this  innovation  seemed  to  me,  it 
met  a  varied  criticism  from  the  adherents,  sincere  and  other- 
wise, of  our  too  widely  vaunted  "democratic  simplicity." 

Another  change  I  made  was  the  substitution  of  a  house- 
keeper for  a  steward.  I  wanted  a  woman  who  could  relieve 
me  of  the  supervision  of  such  details  as  no  man,  expert  stew- 
ard though  he  might  be,  would  ever  recognise.  The  White 
House  requires  such  ordinary  attention  as  is  given  by  a  good 
housekeeper  to  any  house,  except,  perhaps,  that  it  has  to 
be  more  vigilantly  watched.  Dust  accumulates  in  corners; 
mirrors  and  picture  glasses  get  dim  with  dampness;  curtains 
sag  or  lose  their  crispness;  floors  lose  their  gloss;  rugs  turn 
up  at  comers  or  fray  at  the  ends ;  chair  covers  get  crumpled ; 
cushions  get  crushed  and  untidy;  things  get  out  of  order 
generally;  and  it  is  a  very  large  house.  Kitchen  helpers 
grow  careless  and  neglect  their  shining  copper  pots  and  pans 
and  kettles;  pantry  boys  forget  and  send  in  plates  or  glasses 
not  polished  to  perfection;  maids  forget  to  be  immaculate 
and  linen  is  not  properly  handled;  they  are  just  like  em- 
ployes in  other  homes  and  they  need  a  woman's  guidance 
and  control.  I  engaged  my  housekeeper  before  my  hus- 
band's Inauguration  and  she  reported  for  duty  on  the  morn- 
ing of  March  fifth. 

If  I  could  remember  how  many  turkeys  the  President 
gives  away  every  Christmas  I  could  tell  just  how  many 
persons  there  are  in  the  White  House  service.  I  know  it  is 
something  like  one  hundred,  but  they  go  to  employes  of  all 
kinds,  to  important  house  officials,  to  minor  officials,  to  serv- 
ants of  high  and  low  degree,  to  gardeners,  stable  boys,  chauf- 
feurs and  all. 

The  staff  of  the  White  House  proper  is  not  so  numerous, 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

eighteen  or  twenty  perhaps,  including  cooks,  kitchen  maids, 
butlers,  boys,  housemaids  and  laundresses.  There  was  one 
coloured  cook,  Alice,  who  prepared  the  meals  for  the  serv- 
ants' dining-room  and  who  had  been  in  the  White  House 
twenty  years. 

My  head  cook,  whom  I  engaged,  was  Swedish.  She  was 
a  miracle  of  a  cook,  but  she  displayed  a  romantic  tendency 
as  well.  She  must  have  been  about  forty,  apparently  quite 
staid,  when  she  acquired  a  husband,  a  policeman  on 
duty  at  the  White  House,  and,  in  due  course,  a  baby. 
She  had  been  married  only  a  little  over  a  year  when  her 
husband  contracted  tuberculosis.  We  had  always  been 
very  much  interested  in  her,  deploring  the  home-making 
tendency  which  took  her  away  from  us,  so  when  we 
learned  of  her  misfortune  Mr.  Taft  immediately  took  steps 
to  have  her  husband  sent  to  Ft.  Bayard,  the  Military  Tuber- 
culosis Sanatorium  in  New  Mexico.  The  cook,  who  earned 
seventy-five  dollars  a  month,  put  her  baby  out  to  nurse  and 
returned  to  the  White  House,  where  we  got  regular  reports 
as  to  the  progress  of  the  invalid  and  the  infant,  each  of 
whom  proceeded  to  do  as  well  as  could  be  expected. 

The  other  servants  in  the  White  House  are  paid  the  usual 
wages,  from  twenty-five  to  fifty  dollars,  and  are  no  more  and 
no  less  efficient  than  other  good  houseworkers  in  other  homes. 
The  entire  White  House  staff  is  paid  by  the  Government, 
the  only  private  servants  in  our  employ  being  a  Filipino 
valet  who  had  been  with  Mr.  Taft  for  a  number  of  years,  and 
my  personal  maid. 

In  fact,  all  White  House  expenses  are  paid  by  the  Govern- 
ment except  actual  table  supply  bills,  and  Mr.  Taft  is  fond 
of  insisting  upon  his  conviction  that  the  country  treats  its 
President  exceedingly  well.  He  was  the  first  President  to 
receive  a  salary  of  $75,000.00  a  year,  and  when  the  sub- 
ject of  his  nomination  was  uppermost  in  political  discussions 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  he  thought  this  increase  from 

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(E)  Harris  &Ewing-. 

TWO    CORNERS    OF    THE   WHITE    HOUSE    KITCHEN 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

$50,000.00  was  an  absolute  necessity.  He  did  not  expect 
to  spend  $75,000.00  a  year,  but  he  knew  by  careful  calcula- 
tion and  by  a  knowledge  of  President  Roosevelt's  expendi- 
tures that  he  would  have  to  spend  at  least  $50,000.00  a 
year  and  he  thought  he  had  a  citizen's  right,  even  as  Presi- 
dent, to  provide  a  small  competence  for  his  family,  a  thing 
which  in  his  twenty  years  of  poorly  paid  official  service  he 
had  never  had  an  opportunity  to  do.  He  was  fifty  years 
old  with  two  sons  and  a  daughter  in  school  and  college  and, 
as  Secretary  of  War  at  least,  he  had  long  been  working  for  a 
wage  which  was  insufficient.  But  the  country  really  is  good 
to  its  President.  It  does  not  make  him  rich  by  any  means, 
but  it  enables  him  to  banish  the  wolf  a  fair  distance  from 
his  door  if  he  is  sensible  enough  to  assist  its  generosity  by 
the  exercise  of  a  mild  form  of  prudence. 

My  first  inspection  of  the  White  House  on  the  evening  of 
my  husband's  Inauguration  was  casual,  but  the  next  day  I 
assumed  the  management  of  the  establishment  in  earnest 
and  proceeded  upon  a  thorough  investigation  which  resulted 
in  some  rather  disquieting  revelations. 

Mrs.  Roosevelt,  as  the  retiring  Mistress  of  the  White 
House,  naturally  would  make  no  changes  or  purchases  which 
might  not  meet  with  the  approval  of  her  successor,  so  I  found 
the  linen  supply  depleted,  the  table  service  inadequate 
through  breakages,  and  other  refurnishing  necessary. 
There  is  a  government  appropriation  to  meet  the  expense  of 
such  replenishments  and  repairs,  and  every  President's  wife 
is  supposed  to  avail  herself  of  any  part  of  it  she  requires  to 
fit  the  mansion  for  her  own  occupancy. 

Perhaps  nothing  in  the  house  is  so  expressive  of  the  various 
personalities  of  its  Mistresses  as  the  dinner  services  which 
each  has  contributed.  For  my  part  I  was  entirely  satisfied 
with  the  quiet  taste  displayed  by  Mrs.  Roosevelt  and  con- 
tented myself  with  filling  up  the  different  broken  sets  in 
her  service  to  the  number  necessary  for  one  hundred  covers. 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

I  always  enjoyed,  however,  using  some  of  the  old  historic 
plates  and  platters  at  small  luncheons  and  dinners.  There 
are  enough  plates  left  of  the  Lincoln  set  to  serve  a  course  to 
a  party  of  thirty.  Though  I  speak  of  the  different  designs 
as  expressive  of  personalities  they  represent,  perhaps,  various 
periods  of  popular  taste  rather  than  individual  preference. 
Samples  of  all  the  different  services,  displayed  in  cabinets 
in  the  long  eastern  corridor,  are  among  the  most  interesting 
exhibits  in  the  White  House. 

From  the  day  my  husband  became  President  I  never  knew 
for  certain  until  I  entered  the  dining-room  just  how  many 
persons  there  would  be  at  luncheon.  He  always  did  credit 
me  with  a  miraculous  ability  to  produce  food  for  any  num- 
ber of  persons  at  a  moment's  notice  and  when  he  was  Gover- 
nor of  the  Philippines  and  Secretary  of  War  I  always  had 
to  keep  an  emergency  supply  cupboard,  but  I  did  not  .feel 
that  I  could  carry  with  me  into  the  White  House  the  happy- 
go-lucky  attitude  toward  the  formalities  which  I  had  en- 
joyed in  those  days,  so  meeting  his  sudden  demands  became 
a  slightly  more  serious  matter.  His  haphazard  hospitality 
was  of  more  concern  to  the  servants  than  to  me,  however, 
and  I  think  it  is  only  his  own  gift  for  inspiring  respectful 
devotion  on  the  part  of  his  household  staff  that  ever  enables 
me  to  keep  a  cook  more  than  a  week  at  a  time. 

During  our  first  spring  in  the  White  House  Congress  was 
in  extra  session  for  the  purpose  of  revising  the  tariff  and  Mr. 
Taft  was  in  constant  conference  with  the  different  Senators 
and  Representatives.  We  had  members  of  Congress  at 
luncheon  and  dinner  daily,  and  at  breakfast  quite  frequently. 

Always,  in  consultation  with  my  housekeeper  and  the  head 
cook,  I  made  out  the  daily  menus. 

"How  many  for  luncheon,  Madame?"  was  the  cook's  in- 
variable question. 

' 'I  haven't  any  idea,"  was  my  invariable  reply. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

If  no  guests  had,  to  my  knowledge,  been  invited  I  would 
give  instructions  to  have  luncheon  prepared  for  the  family 
only,  emergency  provision  being  a  thing  understood.  My 
day's  plans  would  then  be  sent  over  to  Mr.  Young,  the  Ex- 
ecutive Social  Officer,  who  had  his  office  in  the  Executive 
wing  of  the  building,  and  I  would  go  on  about  my  accus- 
tomed duties  and  pleasures  knowing  that  no  surprise  would 
find  us  quite  surprised. 

Along  about  eleven  o'clock  the  house  telephone  would 
ring,  or  a  note  would  be  sent  over,  and  announcement  would 
be  made  that  Mr.  So  and  So  would  lunch  with  the  President 
and  Mrs.  Taft.  The  table  would  be  laid  while  the  kitchen 
staff  stood  calmly  by  awaiting  final  orders.  In  another  half 
hour  might  come  the  announcement  of  a  second  guest,  or 
group  of  guests,  whereupon  the  amiable  butler  would  have  to 
make  a  complete  change  in  table  arrangements.  Only  about 
a  half  hour  before  the  stated  luncheon  hour  did  the  cook 
ever  consider  it  safe  to  begin  final  preparations,  but  too 
often  for  the  maintenance  of  entire  smoothness  in  domestic 
routine  Mr.  Taft  would  come  across  from  the  Executive  of- 
fices anywhere  from  a  half  hour  to  an  hour  late,  bringing 
with  him  an  extra  guest,  or  even  a  number  of  extra  guests 
whose  coming  had  not  been  announced  at  all. 

This  system,  or  this  lack  of  system,  obtained  throughout 
my  four  years  in  the  White  House,  but  I  and  my  capable 
and  willing  staff,  all  of  whom  were  devoted  to  the  President, 
eventually  adjusted  ourselves  to  it  and  I  began  to  take  great 
delight  in  the  informal  meeting  of  so  many  interesting  and 
distinguished  men  at  our  open  luncheon  table. 

I  tried  to  insist  that  the  dinner  hour  should  always  be 
properly  respected,  and  it  usually  was.  While  we  gave 
many  informal,  small  dinners, — nearly  every  night  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact, — there  were  crowded  into  my  first  season  from 
March  until  I  became  ill  in  May  most  of  the  big  official 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Junctions  which  are  a  part  of  White  House  life  always,  as 
well  as  a  number  of  entertainments  which  were  a  part  of 
my  own  scheme  of  innovations. 

Our  first  official  entertainment  was  the  Diplomatic  Tea 
on  the  12th  of  March,  just  eight  days  after  the  Inauguration, 
and  before  I  had  time  to  settle  myself  in  the  midst  of  my 
own  belongings  which  were  to  fill  the  empty  spaces  left  by 
the  removal  of  Mrs.  Roosevelt's  personal  effects.  At  this 
tea  we  received  the  entire  Diplomatic  Corps,  including  all 
heads  of  Missions,  and  all  Secretaries  and  Attaches,  with 
their  wives. 

Nothing  could  be  more  statelily  important.  It  was  the 
first  presentation  of  the  Diplomatic  Corps  to  the  new  Presi- 
dent and  though,  having  been  for  several  years  in  Washing- 
ton society,  we  knew  many  of  them  quite  well,  the  method  of 
procedure  was  as  formal  as  the  State  Department  could 
make  it.  Explicit  directions  as  to  the  manner  in  which  they 
were  to  present  themselves  were  sent  in  printed  form  to  every 
diplomatic  representative  in  Washington,  but  while  an  al- 
most oppressive  dignity  marked  the  proceedings,  our  wide 
acquaintance  made  it  possible  for  us  to  depart  somewhat 
from  the  rigid  form  decreed  and  to  lend  to  the  occasion  an 
air  of  general  friendliness  it  could  not  otherwise  have  had. 

It  might  be  interesting  to  those  not  familiar  with  Wash- 
ington life  to  know  just  what  the  prescribed  ceremonies  are 
for  such  an  event.  I  confess  that  at  first  they  seemed  to  me 
to  be  rather  formidable,  accustomed  as  I  was  to  the  dignities 
of  government. 

The  guests  are  not  received  by  the  President  and  his  wife 
as  they  arrive.  They  are  requested  to  "present  themselves 
(in  uniform)  at  the  East  entrance  and  to  assemble  in  the 
East  Room  at  a  sufficient  interval  before  five  o'clock  to  en- 
able them  by  that  hour  to  place  themselves  in  the  order  of 
precedence,  each  Chief  of  Mission  being  immediately  fol- 
lowed by  his  staff  and  ladies  of  his  Embassy  or  Legation." 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

They  are  met  in  the  East  Room  by  the  Secretary  of  State 
and  other  State  Department  officials,  and  by  some  of  the 
aides-de-camp  on  duty  at  the  White  House. 

In  the  meantime  the  President  and  his  wife  take  their  posi- 
tions in  the  Blue  Room  and  exactly  at  five  o'clock  the  doors 
are  thrown  open  and  announcement  is  made  in  the  East 
Room  that  they  are  ready  to  receive. 

The  Dean  of  the  Diplomatic  Corps  then  steps  forward, 
past  the  military  aides  stationed  at  the  door  leading  into  the 
Blue  Room  and  is  presented  by  the  senior  military  aide  to 
the  President.  He  in  turn  presents  each  member  of  his  suite, 
all  of  whom  pass  promptly  on  and  are  presented  by  another 
aide  to  the  President's  wife,  the  head  of  the  Mission  being 
presented  to  her  at  the  end  of  these  ceremonies.  Each  Am- 
bassador or  Minister,  in  strict  order  of  precedence,  passes  by 
with  his  staff,  and  they  all  proceed  through  the  Red  Room 
and  into  the  state  Dining  Room  where  tea  and  other  refresh- 
ments are  served. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  presentations  the  President  and 
his  wife  usually  retire  and  leave  their  guests  to  be  entertained 
for  a  few  formal  moments  by  whomever  has  been  invited  to 
preside  at  the  tea-table,  but  Mr.  Taf t  and  I  followed  them 
into  the  dining-room  to  have  tea  with  them.  I  knew  this 
was  a  departure  from  established  custom,  but  it  seemed  a  per- 
fectly natural  thing  for  us  to  do.  I  forgot  to  take  into  con- 
sideration the  attitude  of  our  guests,  however.  Our  unac- 
customed presence  rather  bewildered  the  diplomats  for  a 
moment.  There  were  no  rules  to  guide  them  in  such  an 
emergency  and  they  didn't  know  exactly  what  was  expected 
of  them.  I  had  finally  to  instruct  one  of  the  aides  to  an- 
nounce unofficially  to  the  wives  of  some  of  the  more  im- 
portant of  them  that  nothing  at  all  was  expected,  and  that 
they  should  retire  without  making  any  adieus  whenever 
they  so  desired.  I  was  told  afterward  that  nearly  everybody 
was  pleased  with  the  innovation,  and  in  the  official  White 

355 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

House  Diary — kept  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  prece- 
dents, I  suppose — it  was  recommended  that  it  be  followed 
on  all  future  occasions  of  a  similar  nature. 

At  our  first  state  dinner,  given  to  the  Vice-President  and 
Mrs.  Sherman,  there  were  thirty-two  guests,  all  Cabinet  Of- 
ficers, Senators  and  Representatives.  To  prove  my  claim 
to  a  natural  tendency  toward  simple  and  everyday  methods 
I  need  only  say  that  even  as  the  President's  wife  it  seemed 
strange  to  me  to  have  our  guests  arrive  without  immediate 
greetings  from  their  host  and  hostess.  Many  a  time  at 
Malacafian  Palace  and  in  other  homes  I  have  gone  through 
the  not  unusual  experience  of  a  hostess  who  spends  the  last 
possible  moments  in  putting  "finishing  touches"  to  prepara- 
tions for  a  dinner,  then  hurries  off  to  dress  in  record  time 
that  she  may  be  able  to  meet  her  first  arriving  guest  with  an 
air  of  having  been  ready  and  waiting  for  ever  so  long. 

But  at  the  White  House  the  guests  assemble  in  whatever 
room  may  be  designated  and  there,  grouped  in  order  of  rank, 
await  the  entrance  of  the  President  and  his  wife.  At  this 
first  formal  dinner  of  ours  the  guests  assembled  in  the  Blue 
Room,  the  Vice-President  and  Mrs.  Sherman  being  first,  of 
course,  and  nearest  the  door  leading  into  the  corridor,  while 
beyond  them  were  the  Cabinet  officers,  then  the  Senators 
and  Representatives  in  order  of  seniority. 

Upon  our  appearance  the  band  began  to  play  "The  Star 
Spangled  Banner" — which,  let  me  say  parenthetically,  is 
almost  as  difficult  a  tune  to  walk  by  as  Mendelssohn's  Wed- 
ding March — and  played  just  enough  of  it  to  bring  us  to 
the  door  of  the  Blue  Room.  After  we  had  shaken  hands 
with  everybody  the  senior  aide  approached  Mr.  Taft  with 
Mrs.  Sherman  on  his  arm  and  announced  that  dinner  was 
served,  whereupon  Mr.  Taft  offered  his  arm  to  Mrs.  Sher- 
man and  started  for  the  dining-room. 

For  my  first  dinner  I  chose  pink  Killarney  roses  for  table 
decorations  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  express  the  pleasure 

356 


Ml 


1 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

I  felt  in  having  just  as  many  of  them  as  I  needed  by  merely 
issuing  instructions  to  have  them  delivered.  The  White 
House  greenhouses  and  nurseries  were  a  source  of  constant 
joy  to  me.  I  had  lived  so  long  where  plants  are  luxuriant 
and  plentiful  that  a  house  without  them  seemed  to  me  to  be 
empty  of  a  very  special  charm  and  the  head  horticulturist 
remarked  at  once  that  during  my  regime  his  gems  of  palms 
and  ferns  and  pots  of  brilliant  foliage  were  to  be  given  their 
due  importance  among  White  House  perquisites.  I  filled  the 
windows  of  the  great  East  Room  with  them,  banked  the  fire- 
places with  them  and  used  them  on  every  possible  occasion. 

The  state  Dining  Room  is  one  of  the  many  splendid  re- 
sults of  the  McKim  restoration  and,  next  to  the  East 
Room,  is  the  handsomest  room  in  the  White  House.  It  is 
not  so  tremendously  large,  its  utmost  capacity  being  less  than 
one  hundred,  but  it  is  magnificently  proportioned  and  beau- 
tifully finished  in  walnut  panelling  with  a  fireplace  and 
carved  mantel  on  one  side  which  would  do  honour  to  an 
ancient  baronial  hall.  A  few  fine  moose  and  elk  heads  are 
its  only  wall  decorations. 

We  had  table- tops  of  all  sizes  and  shapes,  but  the  one  we 
had  to  use  for  very  large  dinners  was  in  the  form  of  a  cres- 
cent which  stretched  around  three  sides  of  the  room.  For  any 
dinner  under  sixty  I  was  able  to  use  a  large  oval  top  which 
could  be  extended  by  the  carpenters  to  almost  any  size.  In- 
deed, I  have  seen  it  so  large  that  it  quite  filled  the  room 
leaving  only  enough  space  behind  the  chairs  for  the  waiters 
to  squeeze  their  way  around  with  considerable  discomfort. 
On  this  table  I  used  the  massive  silver-gilt  ornaments  which 
President  Monroe  imported  from  France  along  with  his 
interesting  collection  of  French  porcelains,  clocks  and  statu- 
ettes which  still  occupy  many  cabinets  and  mantels  here  and 
there  in  the  house. 

These  table  ornaments  remind  one  of  the  Cellini  period 
when  silversmiths  vied  with  each  other  in  elaborations. 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Based  on  oblong  plate  glass  mirrors,  each  about  three  feet 
in  length,  they  stretch  down  the  middle  of  the  table,  end  to 
end,  a  perfect  riot  of  festooned  railing  and  graceful  figures 
upholding  crystal  vases.  Then  there  are  large  gilded  can- 
delabra, centre  vases  and  fruit  dishes  to  match.  In  their 
way  they  are  exceedingly  handsome,  and  they  certainly  are 
appropriate  to  the  ceremony  with  which  a  state  dinner  at 
the  White  House  is  usually  conducted. 

The  White  House  silver  is  all  very  fine  and  there  are 
quantities  of  it.  It  is  all  marked,  in  accordance  with  the 
simple  form  introduced  at  the  beginning  of  our  history,  "The 
President's  House,"  and  some  of  it  is  old  enough  to  be 
guarded  among  our  historic  treasures. 

When  I  went  to  live  at  the  White  House  I  found,  much 
to  my  surprise,  that  this  silver  had  always  been  kept  in  a 
rather  haphazard  fashion  in  chests,  or  boxes,  in  the  store- 
room. I  decided  to  remedy  this  even  though  in  doing  so 
I  was  compelled  to  encroach  somewhat  upon  the  White 
House  custodian's  already  limited  quarters.  These  quar- 
ters are  a  good-sized  office  with  the  house  supply  rooms 
opening  off  it,  and  a  smaller  room  adjoining.  They  are  on 
the  ground  floor  just  across  the  wide  corridor  from  the 
kitchen.  At  one  end  of  the  smaller  room  I  had  built  a 
closet  with  regular  vault  doors  and  combination  locks.  I 
had  the  space  divided  into  compartments,  with  a  special 
receptacle  for  each  important  article,  and  velvet-lined  trays 
in  drawers  for  flat  silver,  each  one  of  which  could  be  slipped 
out  separately.  This  silver  closet  became  the  joy  of  Arthur 
Brooks'  life,  he  being  the  War  Department  Messenger  who 
was  my  right  hand  man  all  the  time  my  husband  was  Secre- 
tary of  War  and  who  was  appointed  White  House  Custo- 
dian at  our  request  a  short  time  before  Mr.  Taft  was  inau- 
gurated. 

I  was  "at  home"  informally  at  the  White  House  about 
three  afternoons  a  week  when  my  friends  came  to  see  me  and 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

when  I  received  many  ladies  who  wrote  and  asked  for  an 
opportunity  to  call.  I  always  received  in  the  Red  Room 
which,  with  fire  and  candles  lighted,  is  pleasant  enough  to 
be  almost  cosy,  large  and  imposing  though  it  be.  I  usually 
had  twenty  or  more  callers  and  I  found  this  a  delightful 
way  of  meeting  and  getting  close  to  people  as  I  could  not 
hope  to  do  at  the  great  formal  receptions. 

As  an  example  of  one  of  these,  I  might  cite  my  first  after- 
noon reception  to  the  Congressional  ladies  for  which  some- 
thing like  four  hundred  invitations  were  issued.  I  intended 
to  carry  this  off  without  assistance,  other  than  that  rendered 
by  the  ladies  I  had  asked  to  preside  over  the  refreshment 
tables,  but  in  the  end  I  asked  Mr.  Taft  to  receive  with  me, 
a  task  never  very  difficult  for  him.  There  were  no  men  in- 
vited, so  he  had  the  pleasure  of  shaking  hands  and  exchang- 
ing pleasantries  with  several  hundred  women,  and  he  did  it 
without  a  single  protest.  I  made  the  mistake  on  this  occa- 
sion of  receiving  in  the  East  Room  as  the  guests  arrived, 
thinking  that  by  so  doing  I  could  make  the  party  somewhat 
less  formal.  But  I  only  succeeded  in  having  the  stairway 
leading  up  from  the  east  entrance  overcrowded  and  in  mak- 
ing the  affair  much  more  formal  than  it  would  have  been  had 
I  followed  the  usual  course  of  permitting  the  people  to  as- 
semble in  the  East  Room  and  to  be  received  in  the  Blue 
Room  on  their  way  through  to  the  Dining  Room.  It  amuses 
me  to  find  that  Captain  Butt  in  the  Official  Diary  has  care- 
fully recorded  all  my  mistakes  as  well  as  my  successes  for 
the  supposed  benefit  of  other  Mistresses  of  the  White  House. 

I  do  not  wish  to  convey  an  impression  that  life  in  the 
White  House  is  all  a  public  entertainment,  but  there  are  a 
certain  number  of  set  functions  during  every  season  which 
are  as  much  a  part  of  Washington  life  as  is  a  Congressional 
session.  But  even  with  teas,  luncheons,  musicals,  small  din- 
ners, garden  parties  and  dances  coming  at  short  intervals 
between  the  more  official  entertainments,  we  still  had  many 

359 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

evenings  when  there  were  so  few  guests  as  to  make  us  feel 
quite  like  a  family  party.  Indeed,  once  in  a  while  we  dined 
alone. 

We  began  immediately,  as  our  first  spring  advanced,  to 
make  almost  constant  use  of  the  porches  and  terraces  which 
are  among  the  most  attractive  features  of  the  White  House. 
The  long  terrace  extending  from  the  East  Room  I  found 
to  be  a  most  delightful  promenade  for  guests  on  warm  spring 
evenings,  while  the  corresponding  terrace  leading  out  from 
the  Dining  Room  proved  most  useful  for  large  dinner  par- 
ties at  times  when  dining  indoors  would  have  been  rather  un- 
pleasant. 

With  Congress  in  session  nearly  all  summer  Mr.  Taf  t  gave 
a  series  of  Congressional  dinners  and  the  last  one  he  had 
served  on  this  terrace.  A  curious  incident  marked  the  occa- 
sion for  special  remembrance.  It  was  known  that  one  of  the 
Senators  invited  had  never  crossed  the  White  House  thresh- 
old because  of  his  unfriendly  feeling  toward  the  administra- 
tion. He  paid  no  attention  whatever  to  his  invitation — a 
formal  one,  of  course,  requiring  a  formal  answer — until  the 
day  before  the  dinner.  He  then  called  the  White  House 
on  the  telephone  and  asked  if  he  would  be  expected  to  wear 
a  dress  suit.  Mr.  Hoover,  who  received  the  inquiry,  replied 
that  evening  dress  was  customary  at  White  House  dinners, 
whereupon  the  Senator  mumbled  something  at  the  other  end 
of  the  line.  Mr.  Hoover  asked  him  whether  or  not  he 
intended  to  come.  He  replied  that  he  guessed  he  would, 
and  abruptly  rang  off. 

The  next  evening  the  party  waited  for  him  for  a  full  half 
hour  before  they  decided  to  sit  down  without  him,  and  even 
then  his  vacant  place  was  kept  open  for  him.  He  did  not 
come  nor  did  he  ever  offer  any  kind  of  apology  or  excuse  for 
his  extraordinary  conduct.  There  are  certain  manifestations 
of  so-called  Jeffersonian  simplicity  in  this  country  of  ours 

360 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

that  I  am  sure  Jefferson  would  deplore  if  he  lived  in  this  day 
and  generation. 

The  north  verandah  of  the  White  House  is  pleasant 
enough,  but  it  lacks  the  charm  of  seclusion  peculiar  to  the 
south  portico  which  runs  around  the  oval  Blue  Room  and 
looks  out  upon  the  broad  south  garden  with  its  great  foun- 
tain, and  with  Potomac  Park,  the  River  and  Washington's 
Monument  in  the  background.  This  soon  became  our  fa- 
vourite retreat  and  we  used  to  sit  there  in  the  ever  lengthen- 
ing spring  evenings,  breathing  the  perfume  of  magnolia 
blossoms,  watching  the  play  of  lights  on  the  tree-dotted 
lawns  and  on  the  Monument — which  is  never  so  majestic  as 
in  the  night — and  realising  to  the  full  the  pleasant  privilege 
of  living  in  this  beautiful  home  of  Presidents. 

Mr.  Taft  had  a  Victrola  in  the  Blue  Room  and  he  never 
failed,  when  opportunity  offered,  to  lay  out  a  few  favourite 
records  for  his  evening's  entertainment.  Melba  and  Caruso, 
the  Lucia  Sextette,  some  old  English  melodies,  a  few  lively 
ragtime  tunes;  in  those  delightful  surroundings  we  found  a 
Victrola  concert  as  pleasant  a  diversion  as  one  could  desire. 
With  no  applause,  no  fixed  attention,  no  conversation,  no 
effort  of  any  kind  required,  my  husband  found  on  such  quiet 
evenings  a  relaxation  he  was  fully  able  to  appreciate  during 
that  first  trying  summer. 

That  Manila  could  lend  anything  to  Washington  may  be 
an  idea  that  would  surprise  some  persons,  but  the  Luneta 
is  an  institution  whose  usefulness  to  society  in  the  Philippine 
capital  is  not  to  be  overestimated.  At  least  it  was  so  in  my 
day;  and  for  a  long  time  before  Mr.  Taft  became  President 
I  had  looked  with  ambitious  designs  upon  the  similar  possi- 
bilities presented  in  the  drives,  the  river-cooled  air  and  the 
green  swards  of  Potomac  Park.  I  determined,  if  possible,  to 
convert  Potomac  Park  into  a  glorified  Luneta  where  all 
Washington  could  meet,  either  on  foot  or  in  vehicles,  at  five 

361 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

o'clock  on  certain  evenings,  listen  to  band  concerts  and  enjoy 
such  recreation  as  no  other  spot  in  Washington  could  possibly 
afford. 

The  Army  officer  in  charge  of  Public  Buildings  and 
Grounds  had  a  bandstand  erected  in  an  admirable  loca- 
tion at  the  end  of  an  ellipse,  and  we  decided  that  the  long 
drive  theretofore  known  as  "The  Speedway"  should  be  re- 
named Potomac  Drive.  Arrangements  were  made  to  have 
band  concerts  every  Wednesday  and  Saturday  afternoon 
from  five  to  seven  o'clock. 

Saturday,  the  iyth  of  April,  the  concert  began,  and  at 
five  o'clock  Mr.  Taft  and  I,  in  a  small  landaulette  motor-car, 
went  down  to  the  driveway  and  took  our  places  in  the 
throng.  The  Park  was  full  of  people.  As  many  as  ten 
thousand  crowded  the  lawns  and  footways,  while  the  drive 
was  completely  packed  with  automobiles  and  vehicles  of 
every  description.  Everybody  saw  everybody  that  he  or  she 
knew  and  there  was  the  same  exchange  of  friendly  greetings 
that  had  always  made  the  Luneta  such  a  pleasant  meeting 
place.  I  felt  quite  sure  that  the  venture  was  going  to  suc- 
ceed and  that  Potomac  Drive  was  going  to  acquire  the  special 
character  I  so  much  wished  it  to  have. 

I  also  thought  we  might  have  a  Japanese  Cherry  Blossom 
season  in  Potomac  Park.  Both  the  soil  and  climate  en- 
couraged such  an  ambition,  so  I  suggested  that  all  the  bloom- 
ing cherry  trees  obtainable  in  the  nurseries  of  this  country  be 
secured  and  planted.  They  were  able  to  find  about  one 
hundred  only.  Then  the  Mayor  of  Tokyo,  having  learned 
of  our  attempt  to  bestow  the  high  flattery  of  imitation  upon 
his  country,  offered  to  send  us  two  thousand  young  trees. 
We  accepted  them  with  grateful  pleasure,  but  one  consign- 
ment was  found  to  be  afflicted  with  some  contagious  disease 
and  had  to  be  destroyed.  I  watched  those  that  were  planted 
later  with  great  interest  and  they  seem  to  be  doing  very  well. 
I  wonder  if  any  of  them  will  ever  attain  the  magnificent 

362 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

growth  of  the  ancient  and  dearly  loved  cherry  trees  of  Japan. 

One  of  the  delights  of  living  in  the  White  House  is  in 
being  able  to  entertain  one's  friends  from  a  distance  with  a 
confidence  that  they  are  being  given  a  real  pleasure  and  an 
experience  of  an  unusual  kind.  More  often  than  not  we 
had  house  guests,  old  friends  from  Cincinnati,  from  New 
Haven,  from  the  Philippines,  from  here,  there  and  every- 
where; friends  with  whom  we  had  been  closely  associated 
through  the  years  and  who  felt  whole-hearted  satisfaction  in 
my  husband's  attainment  of  the  Presidency. 

To  be  stared  at  is  not  pleasant  because  it  keeps  one  self- 
conscious  all  the  time,  but  one  gets  more  or  less  used  to  it. 
And  anyhow,  I  enjoyed  a  sort  of  freedom  which  Mr.  Taft 
did  not  share  in  any  way.  J^Vhile^ he  would  probably  have 
been  recognised  instantly  in  any ^crowd  anywhere,  I  found 
that  in  most  places  I  could  wander  about  unobserved  like  any 
inconspicuous  citizen.  It  was  a  valued  privilege. 

My  daughter  Helen  likes  to  tell  about  an  experience 
she  had  one  day  in  Philadelphia.  She  was  a  student  at 
Bryn  Mawr  College  and  she  went  in  to  Philadelphia  to  do 
some  shopping.  Among  other  things  she  had  to  get  herself 
some  shoes.  At  the  shoe  store  she  was  waited  on  by  a  girl 
who  was  anything  but  intelligently  attentive.  She  had  tried 
Helen's  patience  considerably  by  suggesting  in  a  certain 
nagging  way  that  her  superior  knowledge  of  what  was  "being 
worn"  deserved  respect,  and  that  Helen  didn't  know  what 
she  wanted  anyhow. 

Helen  selected  some  shoes  and  decided  to  have  them 
charged  to  me,  and  she  thought  what  a  satisfaction  it  was 
going  to  be  to  reveal  her  identity  to  the  patronising  and 
offensive  young  person.  The  young  person  produced  pad 
and  pencil  to  make  out  the  check. 

"Please  have  them  charged  to  Mrs.  William  Howard 
Taft,"  said  Helen  with  what  I  am  sure  was  her  loftiest  air. 

"Address?" 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

'Washington." 

The  salesgirl  held  her  pencil  poised  over  the  pad  and  with 
the  familiar  expression  of  satisfaction  over  a  sale  accom- 
plished said  pleasantly: 

"D.  c.r 


364 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

SOME    WHITE    HOUSE    FORMALITIES 

MY  very  active  participation  in  my  husband's  career  came  to 
an  end  when  he  became  President.  I  had  always  had  the 
satisfaction  of  knowing  almost  as  much  as  he  about  the 
politics  and  the  intricacies  of  any  situation  in  which  he  found 
himself,  and  my  life  was  filled  with  interests  of  a  most  un- 
usual kind.  But  in  the  White  House  I  found  my  own  duties 
too  engrossing  to  permit  me  to  follow  him  long  or  very  far 
into  the  governmental  maze  which  soon  enveloped  him. 

I  was  permitted  fully  to  enjoy  only  about  the  first  two 
and  a  half  months  of  my  sojourn  in  the  White  House.  In 
May  I  suffered  a  serious  attack  of  illness  and  was  practically 
out  of  society  through  an  entire  season,  having  for  a  much 
longer  time  than  that  to  take  very  excellent  care  of  myself. 
During  this  period  my  sisters,  Mrs.  Louis  More,  Mrs.  Charles 
Anderson,  Mrs.  Laughlin  and  Miss  Maria  Herron,  came 
from  time  to  time  to  visit  us  and  to  represent  me  as  hostess 
whenever  it  was  necessary  for  me  to  be  represented. 

But  even  in  my  temporary  retirement,  as  soon  as  I  was 
strong  enough  to  do  anything  at  all,  I  always  took  a  very 
lively  interest  in  everything  that  was  going  on  in  the  house, 
and  from  my  apartments  on  the  second  floor  directed  arrange- 
ments for  social  activities  almost  as  if  I  had  been  well. 

I  didn't  even  have  the  privilege  of  presiding  at  all  my  first 
year  garden  parties,  though  this  was  a  form  of  hospitality 
in  which  I  was  especially  interested  and  which,  I  believe,  I 
was  able  to  make  a  notable  feature  of  our  administration. 
Garden  parties  are  very  popular  in  the  Far  East  and  I  think, 
perhaps,  I  acquired  my  very  strong  liking  for  them  out  there, 
together  with  a  few  sumptuous  notions  as  to  what  a  garden 
party  should  be  like. 

The  Emperor  and  Empress  of  Japan  give  two  each  year; 

365 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

one  in  the  spring  under  the  cherry  blossoms  to  celebrate  the 
Cherry  Blossom  season,  and  one  in  the  autumn  in  the  midst 
of  chrysanthemums  and  brilliant  autumn  foliage.  These 
are  the  events  of  the  year  in  Tokyo,  marking  the  opening  and 
the  close  of  the  social  season,  and  society  sometimes  prepares 
for  them  weeks  ahead,  never  knowing  when  the  Imperial  invi- 
tations will  be  issued.  The  time  depends  entirely  on  the 
blossoming  of  the  cherry  trees  or  the  chrysanthemums  in  the 
Imperial  Gardens.  When  the  blooms  are  at  their  best  the 
invitations  are  sent  out,  sometimes  not  more  than  two  days 
in  advance,  and  society,  in  its  loveliest  garments,  drops  every- 
thing else  and  goes.  It  would  be  very  nice,  of  course,  to 
have  always  some  such  special  reason  for  giving  a  garden 
party,  but  it  is  only  in  the  "Flowery  Kingdom"  that  the 
seasons  are  marked  by  flowers. 

Nothing  could  be  finer  than  the  south  garden  of  the  White 
House.  With  its  wide  lawns,  its  great  fountain,  its  shading 
trees,  and  the  two  long  terraces  looking  down  upon  it  all,  it 
is  ideally  fitted  for  entertaining  out  of  doors.  And  I  must 
mention  one  other  thing  about  it  which  appealed  to  me 
especially,  and  that  is  the  wholesomeness  of  its  clean  Amer- 
ican earth.  This  is  lacking  in  the  tropics.  There  one  may 
not  sit  or  lie  on  the  ground,  breathing  health  as  we  do  here ; 
the  tropic  soil  is  not  wholesome.  Not  that  one  sits  or  lies 
on  the  ground  at  garden  parties,  but  the  very  feel  of  the 
earth  underfoot  is  delightfully  different. 

I  determined  to  give  my  first  garden  party  at  the  White 
House  as  soon  as  spring  was  sufficiently  far  advanced  to 
make  it  possible.  I  issued  invitations,  750  of  them,  for  Fri- 
day, the  yth  of  May,  planning  at  the  same  time  three  others 
to  complete  the  season,  one  each  Friday  during  the  month. 

In  order  to  put  possible  bad  weather  off  its  guard,  I  made 
the  invitations  simply  for  an  "At  Home  from  5  to  7  o'clock," 
because  all  my  life  the  elements  have  been  unfriendly  to  me. 
Whenever  I  plan  an  outdoor  fete  I  begin  to  consult  the 

366 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

weather  man  with  the  hopeful  faith  of  a  Catherine  de 
Medici  appealing  to  her  astrologer,  but  for  all  my  humble 
spirit  I  very  frequently  get  a  downpour,  or  else  a  long-drawn- 
out  and  nerve-trying  threat.  Quite  often  the  lowering 
clouds  have  passed  and  my  prayers  for  sunshine  have  been 
rewarded,  but  quite  often,  too,  I  have  had  to  move  indoors 
with  an  outdoor  throng  for  whom  no  indoor  diversions  had 
been  arranged. 

By  way  of  preparation  for  my  first  garden  party  I  had  a 
large  refreshment  tent  put  up  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the 
garden  where  it  would  be  handy  to  the  kitchen  and  serving 
rooms,  while  under  the  trees  here  and  there  I  had  tables 
spread  at  which  a  corps  of  waiters  were  to  serve  tea  during 
the  reception.  The  Marine  Band  I  stationed  behind  the  iron 
railing  just  under  the  Green  Room.  For  any  kind  of  out- 
door entertainment  at  the  White  House  the  band  had  always 
been  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  lawn  between  the  south 
portico  and  the  fountain,  but  I  thought,  and  correctly,  that 
the  house  wall  would  serve  as  a  sounding  board  and  make  the 
music  audible  throughout  the  grounds.  I  arranged  to  receive 
under  one  of  the  large  trees  in  a  beautiful  vista  looking 
south. 

No  sooner  were  my  plans  completed,  however,  than  the 
weather  man  predicted  rain.  It  was  coming,  sure.  Of 
course,  I  knew  it  would,  but  I  had  had  too  much  experience 
to  think  of  coming  in  out  of  the  rain  before  it  began  to  come 
down.  I  always  sustain  my  hopeful  attitude  until  the 
deluge  descends. 

About  half  past  three  it  began  to  rain  in  torrents  and  I 
saw  all  of  my  festive-looking  preparations  reduced  to  sopping 
wrecks  before  there  was  even  time  to  rush  them  indoors.  By 
five  o'clock,  when  it  was  time  for  the  people  to  begin  to 
arrive,  it  had  stopped  raining,  but  the  lawns  were  soaked  and 
the  trees  were  dripping  dismally,  so  I  directed  the  band  to 
move  into  the  upper  corridor,  as  usual  for  afternoon  affairs, 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

had  the  refreshment  tables  spread  in  the  state  Dining  Room 
and  took  my  by  that  time  accustomed  position  to  receive  the 
long  line  of  guests  in  the  East  Room. 

A  week  later  I  had  better  luck.  I  sent  out  the  same  kind 
of  invitations,  made  the  same  kind  of  preparations,  slightly 
elaborated,  and  was  rewarded  with  a  perfect  mid-May  day. 

The  guests  arrived  at  the  East  Entrance,  came  down  the 
Long  Corridor,  out  through  one  of  the  special  guest  dressing- 
rooms,  and  down  the  long  slope  of  the  lawn  to  the  tree  where 
Mr.  Taft  and  I  stood  to  receive  them,  with  Captain  Arch- 
ibald Butt  to  make  the  presentations.  At  the  next  garden 
party  I  requested  the  gentlemen  to  come  in  white  clothes,  in 
thin  summer  suits,  or  in  anything  they  chose  to  wear, 
instead  of  in  frock  coats.  Some  young  people  played 
tennis  on  the  courts  throughout  the  reception;  it  was  warm 
enough  for  bright  coloured  parasols  and  white  gowns;  the 
fountain  made  rainbows  and  diamond  showers  in  the  sun,  and 
altogether  it  was  a  most  pleasing  picture  of  informal  out- 
door enjoyment.  Each  year  after  that  the  four  May 
garden  parties  were  among  the  most  popular  entertainments 
of  our  social  season. 

The  question  of  a  "Summer  Capital,"  as  the  President's 
summer  home  is  called,  was  quite  a  serious  one  for  us  to  settle. 
We  had  been  going  to  Murray  Bay  for  so  many  years  that  we 
had  few  affiliations  with  any  other  place,  and  we  were  most 
uncertain  as  to  what  we  might  be  able  to  do. 

We  finally  selected  a  number  of  likely  places  and  made 
our  choice  by  the  process  of  elimination.  One  location  was 
too  hot,  another  had  a  reputation  for  mosquitoes,  another  was 
too  far  away,  another  hadn't  first-class  railway,  postal  and 
telegraph  facilities,  and  another,  worst  drawback  of  all,  had 
no  good  golf  links.  It  wouldn't  have  been  a  livable  place 
for  Mr.  Taft  without  golf  links  because  golf  was  his  principal 
form  of  exercise  and  recreation.  Also  the  whole  family 
agreed  that  we  must  be  near  the  sea,  so  our  search  finally 

368 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

narrowed  to  the  Massachusetts  coast.  I  decided  on  the 
North  Shore,  as  the  coast  from  Beverly  to  Gloucester  is 
called,  because  it  had  every  qualification  for  which  we  were 
seeking,  including  excellent  golf  at  the  Myopia  and  Essex 
County  clubs.  Then,  too,  it  had  a  further  attraction  in  that 
the  summer  homes  of  a  number  of  our  friends  were  located 
there,  or  in  the  near  vicinity. 

I  went  up  in  the  spring  to  Beverly  Farms,  with  my  friend 
Miss  Boardman,  and  inspected  houses  for  three  days,  finally 
selecting  one,  principally  for  its  location.  It  stood  near  the 
sea  and  its  velvety  green  lawns  sloped  all  the  way  down  to 
the  sea  wall.  From  its  verandah  one  could  see  out  across 
Salem  Harbour  to  Marblehead. 

The  house  itself  was  a  modern  frame  cottage,  as  simple  as 
anything  well  could  be,  with  a  fine  verandah  and  a  dormer 
windowed  third  story.  It  was  large  enough  for  the  family 
and  for  such  visitors  as  we  inevitably  would  have  to  accom- 
modate, but  besides  the  Taft  family,  which  was  numerous 
enough  at  that  time,  there  were  Captain  Butt  and  a  large 
corps  of  secretaries  and  stenographers,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
Commander  of  the  Sylph^  the  President's  smaller  yacht,  who 
all  had  to  be  within  call  when  they  were  wanted.  Then, 
too,  there  was  the  necessity  for  Executive  Offices  and  I  didn't 
think  it  would  seem  like  having  a  vacation  at  all  if  the  Exec- 
utive Offices  could  not  be  somewhere  out  of  sight  so  that  they 
might  sometimes  be  out  of  mind.  The  President  didn't  ex- 
pect to  be  able  to  spend  much  of  his  time  away  from  Wash- 
ington the  first  summer  but  when  he  did  come  to  Beverly  I 
wanted  him  to  feel  that  he  was  at  least  partially  detaching 
himself  from  business.  So  another  house  was  found  in  the 
town,  yet  on  the  seashore,  and  was  fitted  up  for  Executive 
Offices  and  as  a  home  for  the  office  staff  and  Captain  Butt. 
The  secret  service  men,  like  the  poor,  we  had  with  us  always, 
but  it  never  seemed  to  me  that  they  "lived"  anywhere. 
They  were  merely  around  all  the  time.  They  were  never 

369 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

members  of  the  Cabinet  and  their  wives  and  a  few  especially 
distinguished  outsiders  are  invited. 

The  hostess  doesn't  have  to  worry  about  seating  the  Cab- 
inet officers  because  it  is  all  a  matter  of  precedence  and  is 
attended  to  by  the  Social  Executive  Secretary.  The  rank 
of  a  Cabinet  officer  is  determined  by  the  date  on  which  his 
office  was  created  and  not,  as  one  might  think,  by  the  relative 
importance  of  his  official  status. 

The  only  time  when  a  friendly  democracy  presents  itself 
to  the  President  en  masse  is  on  New  Year's  Day.  At  the 
New  Year's  Reception  he  receives  just  as  many  persons  as  he 
can  shake  hands  with  between  the  hours  of  eleven  in  the 
morning  and  half  past  two  or  three  in  the  afternoon.  His 
wife,  the  wife  of  the  Vice-President  and  the  ladies  of  the 
Cabinet  receive  with  him  as  long  as  it  is  physically  possible 
for  them  to  do  so.  While  writing  in  the  third  person  I  am 
thinking  in  the  first,  of  course.  These  were  our  customs. 

Yet  if  anybody  unfamiliar  with  Washington  life  imagines 
that  a  New  Year's  Reception  means  throwing  open  the 
White  House  doors  and  admitting  the  public  without  con- 
sideration of  rank  or  the  rules  of  precedence  he  is  mistaken. 
The  Reception,  up  to  a  stated  hour,  is  as  carefully  regulated 
as  any  other  function,  and  I  consider  the  list  of  the  especially 
favoured  most  interesting  as  a  revelation  of  the  complexity 
of  Washington's  social  life. 

Announcement  is  made  that  the  President  will  receive  at 
1 1  :oo  A.M. — the  Vice-President,  the  members  of  the  Cabinet 
and  the  Diplomatic  Corps;  at  11:20  A.M. — the  Supreme 
Court,  members  of  the  Judiciary  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 
former  Cabinet  officers  and  former  diplomatic  representa- 
tives of  the  United  States;  at  1 1 130— Senators,  Representa- 
tives and  Delegates  in  Congress;  at  11 145 — Officers  of  the 
Army,  the  Navy,  the  Marine  Corps  and  the  Militia  of  the 
District  of  Columbia;  at  12:15  P-M- — Regents  and  Secre- 
tary of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  all  the  various  Com- 

372 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

missions,  Assistant  Secretaries  of  Departments,  the  Solicitor 
General,  Assistant  Attorneys-General,  Assistant  Postmasters- 
General,  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States,  the  Librarian 
of  Congress,  the  Public  Printer,  heads  of  all  Bureaus  and 
the  President  of  the  Columbia  Institution  for  the  Deaf  and 
Dumb;  at  12:30  P.M. — The  Secretary  of  the  Cincinnati, 
the  Aztec  Club  of  1847,  the  Associated  Veterans  of  the  War 
of  1846-47,  the  Military  Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion  of  the 
United  States,  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  the  Medal 
of  Honor  Legion,  the  Union  Veteran  Legion,  the  Union 
Veterans'  Union,  the  Society  of  the  Army  of  Santiago,  the 
Spanish  Minute  Men,  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution 
and  the  members  of  the  Oldest  Inhabitants'  Association  of 
the  District  of  Columbia;  at  1  :oo  P.M. — Citizens. 

As  all  the  men  present  themselves  in  the  dress  uniform  of 
their  various  services  or  orders,  or  wearing  the  decorations 
they  have  won  in  epoch-marking  events,  one  gets  a  most 
illuminating  view  of  organised  American  patriotism. 

There  is  an  old  system  obtaining  at  the  White  House 
known  as  inviting  guests  "behind  the  line."  This  means 
that  a  chosen  few  are  permitted  as  special  guests  to  be 
present  in  the  Blue  Room  while  a  reception  is  in  progress. 
It  is  a  system  which  has  at  times  been  so  carelessly  regulated 
as  to  engender  jealousies  and  dissatisfactions,  and  we  de- 
termined if  possible  to  avoid  on  all  occasions  any  appearance 
of  favouritism.  So  at  our  first  New  Year's  Reception  we  de- 
cided to  limit  special  privileges  to  the  Diplomatic  Corps,  the 
wives  of  Assistant  Secretaries  and  our  own  house  guests. 
This  made  the  distinction  a  mere  matter  of  official  rank  and 
did  away  with  all  possibility  of  unpleasant  comment  from 
distinguished  members  of  civilian  society. 

For  instance,  there  has  always  been  a  delicate  question  in 
connection  with  the  Judicial  Reception  as  to  whether  or  not 
on  this  occasion  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  take 
precedence  over  the  members  of  the  Diplomatic  Corps. 

373 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

The  Justices  have  always  contended  that  at  their  own  Re- 
ception they  do,  but  the  unwritten  code  has  it  that  no  per- 
son under  the  rank  of  President  or  Vice-President  ever  takes 
precedence  over  an  Ambassador  who  is  the  direct  represent- 
ative of  his  sovereign. 

We  settled  this  question  by  inviting  the  heads  of  all  Mis- 
sions to  the  Blue  Room  where  they  were  greeted  by  the 
President  before  he  took  his  place  in  the  receiving  line,  and 
where  they  were  permitted  to  remain  as  long  as  they  desired, 
being,  as  it  were,  a  part  of  the  receiving  party.  This  was 
a  solution  which  satisfied  everybody  and  pleased  the  Diplo- 
mats particularly. 

A  great  many  special  arrangements  are  necessary  for  a 
New  Year's  Reception  at  the  White  House.  For  every 
state  occasion  or  any  large  function  there  are  always  many 
extra  footmen,  policemen,  guards,  waiters,  cloak  room  at- 
tendants and  ushers  on  hand,  but  on  New  Year's  Day  the 
array  of  them  would  be  most  imposing  if  they  were  not 
almost  lost  in  the  midst  of  a  thronging  populace.  All  the 
people  who  come  to  these  receptions  do  not  pass  the  receiving 
line.  Many  of  them  find  points  of  vantage  in  the  vicinity 
merely  to  look  on,  and  yet  the  President  shakes  hands  with 
from  six  to  eight  thousand  of  them  before  the  gates  are 
closed.  I  have  seen  the  line  of  waiting  people  stretching 
out  through  the  spacious  grounds,  down  the  street,  around  a 
corner  and  out  of  sight  at  a  time  when  I  had  already  given 
up  in  utter  exhaustion.  And  the  way  the  carriages  come 
and  go  in  perfect  order,  without  a  hitch,  each  coachman  with 
his  card  of  a  particular  colour  telling  him  just  where  to  make 
his  exit,  was  a  thing  I  never  could  understand. 

The  corps  of  aides  arrange  all  these  details  and  each  de- 
partment, including  the  police  and  the  secret  service,  has  its 
printed  and  explicit  orders  for  the  day  a  long  time  ahead. 
Some  of  the  police  orders  are  interesting.  For  instance: 
"No  person  under  the  influence  of  liquor,  disorderly  in  his 

374 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

behaviour  or  bearing  any  advertisement  will  be  allowed 
in  line.  Conspicuously  dirty  persons  will  not  be  admitted." 
Also:  "Except  in  the  most  aggravated  case  a  coachman  will 
not  be  taken  from  his  box  and  put  under  arrest.  It  will 
be  sufficient  to  take  his  name  and  address  and  arrest  him  on 
the  following  morning." 

After  a  New  Year's  Reception  the  White  House  is  a 
sorry  sight,  even  though  by  using  extra  strips  of  carpet  to 
protect  the  polished  floors  and  by  removing  fine  rugs  and 
breakable  bric-a-brac  every  possible  precaution  is  taken  to 
make  the  damage  as  slight  as  possible.  But  it  doesn't  take 
long  to  restore  the  house  to  its  normal  condition.  The  way 
the  crowd  of  workmen  used  to  go  about  putting  the  place  in 
order  after  an  invasion  of  this  kind  always  reminded  me 
of  the  well-drilled  stage  hands  at  a  hippodrome  who  manage 
to  set  different  scenes  and  keep  things  spic-and-span  without 
even  interfering  with  a  continuous  performance. 

Very  shortly  after  the  New  Year's  Reception,  three  days 
later  in  fact,  we  gave  the  next  big  event  of  the  season,  the 
Diplomatic  Reception.  It  is  understood,  of  course,  that 
one  of  the  chief  occupations  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States  is  shaking  hands.  I  am  moved  to  this  observation 
by  memories  of  uncounted  hours  by  my  husband's  side  in  a 
receiving  line  at  the  White  House  when  thousands  of  guests 
passed  by,  each  separately  introduced  to  both  the  President 
and  to  me  and  each  extending  an  untired  hand  to  give  and  to 
receive  the  hearty  grasp  which  all  good  Americans  so  highly 
regard.  And  there  is  no  conceivable  form  of  work  or  exer- 
cise more  fatiguing.  If  it  were  not  for  the  mental  stimulus 
afforded  by  the  friendliness  of  a  gay  throng,  by  music  and 
lights  and  a  general  festive  atmosphere,  it  could  hardly  be 
borne. 

For  Mr.  Taft  it  was  never  so  hard  because  in  his  long 
public  career,  and  especially  through  a  political  campaign, 
he  had  had  considerable  training  for  it.  But  for  me  it  was 

375 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

somewhat  more  difficult.  My  friends  used  to  wonder  how 
I  could  stand  it,  but  when  I  was  well  I  never  found  it  so 
much  of  a  strain  that  I  could  not  very  quickly  recover  from 
it.  When  I  was  not  feeling  particularly  strong  I  would 
resort  to  all  manner  of  innocent  pretexts  to  give  myself 
short  intervals  of  rest.  I  would  turn  around  and  engage  in 
important  conversation  with  someone  behind  me;  I  would 
consume  minutes  in  taking  a  drink  of  water;  or  I  would 
get  into  serious  difficulty  with  my  flowers  or  something. 
Then,  too,  I  sometimes  would  sit  frankly  down  and  let  the 
crowds  pass  by. 

To  me  the  long  standing  was  the  real  strain  and  I  soon 
came  to  a  point  where  I  was  willing  to  sacrifice  appearance 
to  approximate  comfort  by  wearing  wide  flat  slippers  with 
low  heels. 

The  Diplomatic  Reception  is  undoubtedly  the  most  bril- 
liant of  the  set  state  functions  which  are  given  at  the  White 
House  each  year,  but  to  me  it  was  never  as  interesting  as  the 
Diplomatic  Dinner  which  follows  it.  There  are  thirty-nine 
foreign  Embassies  and  Legations  in  Washington.  Each 
Ambassador  and  Minister  has  his  own  distinctive  and  some- 
times very  elaborate  regalia;  each  attache,  military  and 
naval,  wears  the  uniform  of  his  service,  in  many  cases  very 
picturesque  and  often  positively  flamboyant;  the  foreign 
women,  gowned  exquisitely,  are  many  of  them  crowned  with 
tiaras  and  laden  with  jewels,  and  when  they  are  all  gathered 
around  one  great,  glittering  and  gorgeously  decorated  table 
they  present  such  a  picture  of  varied  colour  and  magnificence 
as  is  not  to  be  seen  on  any  other  occasion  in  Washington. 

I  used  always  to  wonder  how  they  managed  to  get  along 
with  each  other.  There  is  an  impression  quite  general 
among  us  that  we  are  the  only  nation  on  earth  that  sends 
abroad  diplomatic  representatives  without  any  knowledge  of 
the  French  language.  This  is  not  quite  true.  There  are  a 
good  many  diplomats  in  Washington  who  do  not  speak 

376 


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French,  and  there  are  more  diplomats'  wives.  But  as  both 
men  and  women  are  seated  at  the  Diplomatic  Dinner  in 
strict  order  of  rank,  there  is  no  chance  to  take  into  considera- 
tion the  seemingly  important  question  as  to  whether  or  not 
dinner  partners  will  be  able  to  communicate  with  each  other 
very  freely.  They  do  speak  English,  of  course,  but  many  of 
them  imperfectly,  and,  taking  them  all,  with  exactly  thirty- 
nine  different  accents.  Imagine  the  wife  of  the  Chinese 
Minister  sitting  between  the  Minister  of  Salvador  and  the 
Minister  of  Cuba,  or  the  wife  of  the  Japanese  Ambassador 
having  on  one  hand  the  German  Ambassador  and  on  the 
other  the  Minister  of  Costa  Rica! 

It  all  depends  on  how  long  they  have  been  in  Washing- 
ton. When  I  first  went  to  the  White  House  the  Italian 
Ambassador  was  the  Dean  of  the  Diplomatic  Corps,  with 
the  Austrian  Ambassador  next,  while  among  the  Ministers 
those  from  Siam  and  from  Costa  Rica,  I  think,  had  prece- 
dence over  all  others.  If  the  Minister  of  Haiti  remained 
in  Washington  long  enough  he  could  outrank  the  Minister 
of  Spain.  The  Minister  of  Haiti  is  the  only  negro  diplomat 
in  the  Corps  and  his  place  at  table  in  my  time  was  with  a 
group  of  envoys  of  almost  equal  rank  who  sat  together  near 
one  outer  end  of  the  great  crescent. 

It  was  not  possible  to  invite  many  outsiders  to  the  Diplo- 
matic Dinner  because  there  were  enough  of  the  Diplomats 
themselves  with  their  wives  and  attaches  to  tax  the  capacity 
of  the  State  Dining  Room.  But  Mr.  Taft  never  did  take 
space  limits  into  consideration.  For  both  Receptions  and 
Dinners  I  used  always  to  go  over  the  invitation  lists  and  do 
my  best  to  keep  them  within  bounds.  Regretfully  enough 
would  I  cut  them  wherever  I  found  it  possible,  but  my  hus- 
band, according  to  his  fixed  habit,  invariably  added  more 
names  than  I  took  off,  so,  thanks  to  him,  we  have  to  our 
credit  the  largest  dinner  parties  ever  given  in  the  new  Execu- 
tive Mansion.  Mr.  McKim  in  his  report  on  the  restoration 

377 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

of  the  White  House  says  the  Dining  Room  will  hold  one 
hundred,  but  strained  to  its  utmost  capacity  ninety-two  was 
as  many  as  I  could  ever  crowd  into  it,  and  then  everybody 
was  aghast  at  the  number.  We  might  have  put  a  star  in 
the  hollow  of  the  crescent  so  as  to  accommodate  a  few  more, 
but  I  never  thought  of  it  until  this  moment.  I'm  glad  it 
never  occurred  to  Mr.  Taf t.  With  his  expansive  disposition 
he  certainly  would  have  had  it  tried. 

The  Reception  crowds  I  did  manage  to  cut  down.  It 
simply  had  to  be  done.  When  more  than  two  thousand 
people  get  into  the  White  House  it  is  a  literal  "crush"  and 
nobody  has  a  good  time.  We  not  only  introduced  dancing 
in  the  East  Room  at  Receptions,  a  feature  which  delighted 
everybody  and  especially  the  young  people,  but  we  always 
served  refreshments  to  every  guest  within  our  gates. 

This  was,  I  suppose,  the  most  generally  approved  depar- 
ture from  established  custom  that  was  made  during  my  ad- 
ministration. It  was  made  possible  by  cutting  down  the 
list  of  guests  one  half  and  inviting  one  half  to  one  reception 
and  the  other  half  to  the  next.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  prepar- 
ing a  buffet  supper  for  a  company  of  2,000  people  is  not 
much  more  of  a  strain  on  ordinary  household  resources  than 
serving  a  nine  or  ten  course  formal  dinner  to  eighty  or  ninety 
guests.  Neither  undertaking  is  particularly  simple,  but  the 
White  House  kitchen  and  pantries  are  large  and  adequate, 
we  had  an  efficient  staff  and  we  never  had  any  mishaps  or 
embarrassments  that  I  remember. 

Several  days  before  a  large  reception  my  cooks  would 
begin  to  turn  out  piles  upon  piles  of  small  pastries  and  to  do 
all  the  things  that  could  be  done  in  advance.  Then  on  the 
day  of  the  reception,  with  plenty  of  extra  assistants,  it  was 
found  easily  possible  to  prepare  all  the  salads  and  sand- 
wiches, the  ices  and  sweets,  the  lemonades  and  the  punches 
that  were  necessary.  Nor  did  we  find  that  it  interfered  in 
the  least  with  the  usual  household  routine.  We  took  our 

378 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

meals  in  the  small  family  dining  room  adjoining  the  State 
Dining  Room,  and  even  gave  small  and  successful  dinner 
parties  while  the  State  Dining  Room  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
carpenters  and  decorators. 

Referring  to  the  serving  of  refreshments  reminds  me  of  an 
incident  which  gave  us  some  uneasiness  shortly  after  Mr. 
Taft's  election.  It  was  during  that  phase  of  his  career 
which  all  Presidents  pass  through,  when  his  most  casual 
remark  was  likely  to  be  construed  into  an  "utterance,"  and 
his  most  ordinary  act  was  likely  to  become  a  widely  heralded 
"example."  It  was  while  he  was  still  being  held  up  as  a 
model  of  all  the  excellencies — framed  in  a  question  mark: 
"What  will  he  do*?"  In  other  words  it  was  before  his  In- 
auguration. 

He  was  at  a  dinner  at  Hot  Springs,  Virginia.  As  the 
wine  was  being  served  one  of  the  diners  turned  down  his 
glass  with  the  remark  that  he  had  not  taken  a  drink  for 
eighteen  years.  Mr.  Taft,  in  the  most  usual  and  common- 
place manner,  followed  suit,  saying  that  he  had  been  a  total 
abstainer  for  nearly  two  years  and  expected  to  continue  so. 
The  incident  was  made  the  basis  of  a  sensational  newspaper 
story  which  created  the  impression  that  he  had  acted  with 
great  dramatic  effect  and  that  his  remark  amounted  to  a 
declaration  of  principle  which  he  would  turn  into  a  Presi- 
dential policy. 

Immediately  he  was  overwhelmed  with  memorials,  with 
resolutions  of  commendation  framed  by  some  of  the  most 
worthy  and  admirable  Christian  and  temperance  organisa- 
tions in  the  country.  It  was  taken  for  granted  that  he 
would  banish  alcohol  in  every  form  from  the  White  House. 
In  simple  honesty  he  had  to  tell  all  the  reverend  gentlemen 
that  he  had  made  no  pronouncement  with  regard  to  limiting 
White  House  hospitality,  that  he  had  no  desire  to  interfere 
with  any  normal  man's  personal  habits  and  that  as  President 
he  had  no  intention  of  trying  to  do  so. 

379 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

The  truth  is  that  he  is  a  total  abstainer  because  never  in 
his  life  has  he  indulged  in  stimulants  to  any  extent;  they 
have  no  attraction  for  him  whatever,  and  he  found  in  those 
days  that  with  so  much  dining  out,  it  was  wiser  to  decline  all 
wines  and  liquors.  Being  naturally  abstemious  he  has  al- 
ways rather  objected  to  being  given  personal  credit  for  such 
virtue. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  I,  too,  got  into  trouble  of  a 
peculiar  sort.  In  the  mass  of  correspondence  which  began 
to  roll  in  upon  me  as  soon  as  my  husband  was  elected,  there 
were  requests  of  every  possible  kind  from  all  parts  of  the 
world.  Among  these  came  a  letter  from  a  society  of 
women  engaged  in  political  and  social  reform  work  in  one 
of  the  newer  Balkan  States,  asking  me  to  lend  my  aid  in 
forming  a  similar  society  in  the  United  States. 

I  declined  with  as  much  grace  and  courtesy  as  I  could 
command  and  thought  nothing  more  about  it.  Imagine 
my  surprise  to  find  almost  immediately  that  my  reply  had 
been  construed  by  its  recipients  into  a  sort  of  expression  of 
personal  interest  in  and  sympathy  for  the  people  of  their 
country  in  general.  I  was  proclaimed  the  warm  friend  of 
the  young  State  and  an  enemy  to  all  her  enemies.  The  inci- 
dent became  the  subject  of  an  exchange  of  diplomatic  notes 
in  Washington,  and  it  took  a  bit  of  the  suavity  of  the  State 
Department  to  extricate  me  from  the  tangle  in  which  my 
alleged  active  participation  in  the  trouble  in  the  Balkans 
had  placed  me.  It  taught  me  a  lesson. 

Throughout  my  four  years  in  the  White  House  my  mail 
contained  surprises  every  day,  but  I  soon  learned  not  to  be 
surprised  at  petitions  for  assistance  in  various  forms.  It  is 
extraordinary  how  many  of  these  a  President's  wife  receives. 
The  greater  number  came  to  me  from  small  charitable  organ- 
isations throughout  the  country.  It  seemed  to  me  that  no- 
body ever  thought  of  organising  a  bazaar  or  a  church  fair 
without  asking  me  for  some  sort  of  contribution,  and  before 

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RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

holidays,  especially  Easter  and  Christmas,  I  was  simply 
besieged.  They  did  not  want  money  ever;  they  wanted 
something  that  could  be  sold  as  a  souvenir  of  myself.  I 
never,  to  my  knowledge,  refused  a  request  of  this  kind.  Mrs. 
Roosevelt  had  used  a  photograph  of  the  White  House,  and  I 
decided,  finally,  to  do  the  same.  I  chose  a  view  of  the 
South  Portico  eight  by  ten  inches  in  size  which  I  thought 
very  nice,  and  asked  to  have  it  reserved  for  me.  With  my 
signature  across  one  corner  it  became  a  most  satisfactory 
souvenir.  I  hesitate  to  hazard  a  guess  as  to  the  number  I 
signed  and  sent  away,  but,  ordered  by  the  hundreds,  they 
didn't  cost  very  much,  so  contributing  them  to  good  causes 
became  a  pleasure  unmarred  by  a  sense  of  unjustifiable  ex- 
travagance. Handkerchiefs,  too,  were  in  great  demand 
and  I  always  kept  a  supply  of  them  on  hand. 

I  see  I  have  wandered  away  from  the  receptions  and  din- 
ners and  my  attempt  to  tell  in  some  sort  of  consecutive 
fashion  what  a  social  season  at  the  White  House  consists  of, 
but  remembering  the  crowds  I  lived  in  for  four  years  it  seems 
to  me  that  everybody  must  know  just  as  much  about  these 
things  as  I  do.  I  have  to  keep  reminding  myself  that  I  am 
not  writing  altogether  for  people  who  live  in  Washington, 
but  for  the  people  in  the  far  places  who  have  never  been  to 
Washington,  but  who  have  just  as  much  of  a  personal  prop- 
erty right  in  the  nation's  capital  and  just  as  much  interest  in 
the  proper  conduct  of  its  affairs  whether  they  be  legislative, 
administrative,  diplomatic,  or  merely  social,  as  any  President 
ever  had. 


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CHAPTER  XIX 

CONCLUSION 

OUR  second  summer  at  Beverly  began  with  a  call  from  Mr. 
Roosevelt.  When  the  ex-President  returned  to  the  United 
States,  on  the  l8th  of  June,  1910,  after  an  absence  of  a  year 
and  a  half,  Mr.  Taft  sent  two  members  of  his  Cabinet,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  and 
his  aide,  Captain  Butt,  to  New  York  to  meet  him  and  to  ex- 
tend to  him  a  personal  as  well  as  an  official  welcome  home. 
According  to  Captain  Butt's  Official  Diary : 

"Immediately  upon  the  arrival  of  the  S.S.  Kaiserin 
Auguste  Victoria  at  Quarantine  the  Presidential  party  scaled 
the  sides  of  the  steamer  by  means  of  a  rope  ladder  and  pro- 
ceeded to  the  staterooms  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  where  each  mem- 
ber of  the  party  greeted  the  ex-President.  Then  Captain 
Butt,  who  was  in  full  dress  uniform,  saluted  Mr.  Roosevelt 
and  presented  to  him  the  letter  of  welcome  entrusted  to  his 
care  by  the  President.  Mr.  Roosevelt  read  it  and  expressed 
his  great  appreciation  of  the  honour  of  the  receipt  of  the 
letter,  as  also  for  the  ordering  of  the  U.  S.  S.  South  Carolina 
and  other  vessels  to  accompany  him  from  Quarantine  to 
New  York.  Captain  Butt  also  presented  to  Mr.  Roosevelt 
a  letter  (from  Mrs.  Taft)  supplementing  the  President's 
invitation  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roosevelt  to  pay  them  a  visit  at 
the  White  House  now  or  at  any  time  when  it  might  be  con- 
venient for  them  to  do  so.  ...  Mr.  Roosevelt  took  occasion 
to  send  his  sincere  appreciation  and  profound  thanks  to  the 
President  by  Captain  Butt  both  for  the  official  and  personal 
welcome  extended  to  him." 

I  removed  the  Presidential  household  to  Beverly  the  week 
Mr.  Roosevelt  arrived  and  did  not  see  him  until  after  Mr. 
Taft  joined  me  about  ten  days  later.  Again  to  quote  from 
Captain  Butt's  carefully  kept  record: 

382 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

"June  30 — At  3 130  o'clock  ex-President  Theodore  Roose- 
velt, accompanied  by  Senator  Lodge,  called  to  pay  his  re- 
spects to  the  President.  He  was  met  at  the  entrance  by 
Captain  Butt,  who  announced  his  arrival.  The  President 
immediately  came  out  and  greeted  his  visitor  most  affection- 
ately, addressing  him  as  Theodore. 

"Colonel  Roosevelt  took  both  hands  of  the  President,  and 
said, 

"  'Mr.  President,  it  is  fine  to  see  you  looking  so  well.' 

:"  'But  why  "Mr.  President'"?'  laughed  the  President. 

"  'Because,'  replied  Colonel  Roosevelt,  'it  used  to  be  "Mr. 
President"  and  "Will,"  now  it  must  be  "Mr.  President" 
and  "Theodore."  ' 

"The  President  conducted  his  distinguished  predecessor  to 
the  side  porch  where  they  started  into  a  series  of  delightful 
reminiscences  of  the  past  Administration.  .  .  .  Colonel 
Roosevelt  remained  two  hours,  during  which  he  gave  the 
President  an  interesting  account  of  his  trip." 

I  was  present  at  this  interview  and  remember  it  as  being 
remarkably  pleasant  and  entertaining.  Everybody  will 
recall  that  the  question  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  attitude  toward 
my  husband  was  even  then  a  debatable  one,  but  Mr.  Taft 
had  resolutely  refused  to  believe  that  it  could  ever  be  any- 
thing but  friendly.  I  did  not  share  his  complete  faith,  but  I 
was  glad  on  this  occasion  to  find  the  old  spirit  of  sympathetic 
comradeship  still  paramount  and  myself  evidently  proved 
to  be  unwarrantably  suspicious. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  had  just  been  in  England  where  he  acted 
as  the  representative  of  the  President  of  the  United  States 
at  the  funeral  of  King  Edward,  and  that  solemnly  magnifi- 
cent event  seemed  to  have  overshadowed  in  his  mind  every 
other  experience  he  had  had  during  his  long  absence.  He 
described  the  stately  ceremonies  and  the  medisevally  pic- 
turesque procession  in  vivid  detail  and  did  not  fail  to  empha- 
sise their  grave  and  reverential  aspects,  but  he  dwelt  partic- 

383 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

ularly,  and  to  our  great  amusement,  upon  the  humorous 
side  of  the  situation  in  which  he  had  found  himself. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  among  Kings  and  Emperors 
and  Czars,  and  even  lesser  potentates,  the  rank  of  Presidents 
was  a  difficult  thing  to  determine.  Should  minor  royalties 
take  precedence  over  the  representatives  of  the  French  Re- 
public and  the  United  States  of  America,  to  say  nothing  of 
Mexico,  Brazil,  Switzerland,  and  all  the  other  great  and 
small  democracies'? 

Mr.  Roosevelt  had  great  difficulty  in  finding  his  place. 
Then,  too,  he  was  constantly  running  into  kings  and  other 
royalties  to  whom  he,  naturally,  owed  ceremonious  respect. 
They  were  so  numerous  in  London  at  the  time  that  familiar- 
ity with  them  bred  carelessness  in  one  whose  tongue  had  not 
been  trained  to  the  honorifics  of  Court  life,  and  he  found 
himself  making  extremely  funny  blunders.  He  told  us 
many  stories  of  his  adventures  with  the  world's  elect  and, 
with  his  keen  appreciation  of  the  ridiculous  and  his  gift  of 
description,  gave  us  as  merry  an  afternoon  as  we  ever  spent 
with  him. 

I  dwell  on  the  memory  of  this  agreeable  meeting  with  Mr. 
Roosevelt  and  the  entertainment  it  afforded  me,  because  by 
his  manner  he  succeeded  in  convincing  me  that  he  still  held 
my  husband  in  the  highest  esteem  and  reposed  in  him  the 
utmost  confidence,  and  that  the  rumours  of  his  antagonism 
were  wholly  unfounded.  I  was  not  destined  to  enjoy  this 
faith  and  assurance  for  very  long. 

In  mid-July  of  that  year  we  started  off  for  a  short  cruise 
on  the  Mayflower,  the  only  one  we  ever  made.  It  is  not 
really  possible  for  the  President  to  have  a  vacation,  but  if  he 
happens  to  be  a  good  sailor  I  know  of  no  better  way  for  him 
to  get  short  intervals  of  rest  than  by  boarding  the  Presi- 
dential yacht  and  steaming  away,  out  of  the  reach  of  crowds. 

We  had  only  a  small  party  with  us,  my  husband's  brother, 
Mr.  Horace  Taft,  my  sister,  Mrs.  Louis  More,  Miss  Mabel 

384 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Boardman  and  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  Mr. 
Beekman  Winthrop,  and  Mrs.  Winthrop;  and  Captain  Butt, 
of  course,  was  with  us  always. 

We  headed  north  for  the  Maine  coast  with  Eastport  as 
our  first  stopping  place.  The  mayor  of  that  interesting  city 
of  fisheries  came  on  board  as  soon  as  we  dropped  anchor, 
made  a  felicitous  speech  of  welcome  and  proceeded  to  lay 
out  a  programme  of  sightseeing  and  festivities  which  would 
have  kept  us  there  for  a  considerable  longer  time  than  we 
could  stay  if  it  had  all  been  carried  out,  and  this  experience 
was  repeated  everywhere  we  went.  We  had  to  decline 
everything  except  a  motor  ride  about  town  for  the  purpose 
of  getting  a  glimpse  of  the  weir  fisheries  and  the  sardine  can- 
neries, but  a  President  doesn't  visit  Eastport  very  often,  so 
the  people  thronging  the  streets  made  it  seem  quite  like  a 
holiday. 

Then  a  committee  from  the  Island  of  Campo  Bello,  which 
lies  a  short  distance  off  the  coast  and  which  is  a  British  pos- 
session, waited  upon  us  with  an  invitation  to  come  across  and 
go  for  a  buckboard  ride  around  a  part  of  the  island.  It 
sounded  like  such  a  homely  and  restful  form  of  amusement 
that  Mr.  Taf  t  was  sorely  tempted  to  break  the  unwritten  law 
which  decrees  that  a  President  may  not  set  foot  outside 
United  States  territory,  but  he  concluded  that  he  had  better 
not.  The  rest  of  us,  however,  decided  to  go  and  we  had  a 
jolly,  jolting  ride  which  ended  at  the  summer  home  of  Mrs. 
Franklin  Roosevelt. 

Everywhere  we  went  we  were  most  delightfully  enter- 
tained, finding  beautiful  homes  and  merry  summer  hosts  at 
every  port  and  town.  At  fashionable  Bar  Harbor  we  found 
a  colony  of  friends  whose  winter  homes  are  in  Washington 
and  Mr.  Taft  got  some  excellent  golf.  There  were  lunch- 
eons and  dinners,  of  course,  every  day  and  everywhere,  to 
say  nothing  of  teas  and  large  receptions,  and  Mr.  Taft  had 
to  make  speeches,  too,  and  meet  all  the  Maine  politicians. 

385 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

But  there  were  the  long  restful  nights  on  the  Mayflower, 
steaming  along  among  the  crags  and  rocks  of  the  broken,  pic- 
turesque coast,  or  lying  at  anchor  in  some  quiet  harbour  with 
only  the  soft  water  sounds  to  break  the  stillness,  and  it 
would  not  have  taken  much  persuasion  to  have  kept  me 
aboard  indefinitely. 

The  Mayflower  is  used  ordinarily  for  official  purposes  in 
connection  with  naval  reviews  and  other  naval  ceremonies, 
and  at  such  times,  with  the  President  on  board,  there  is  a 
punctilious  formality  to  be  encountered  which  makes  a  mere 
civilian  feel  like  a  recruit  under  the  eyes  of  a  drill-sergeant. 
But  it  is  very  interesting.  One  gets  so  used  to  seeing  every- 
body in  uniform  standing  stiffly  at  attention  as  the  President 
passes  that  one  almost  forgets  that  it  isn't  their  natural  atti- 
tude. 

And  then  the  guns.  They  shake  one's  nerves  and  hurt 
one's  ears,  but  they  are  most  inspiring.  The  President's  sa- 
lute is  twenty-one  guns.  It  is  fired  every  time  he  sets  foot  on 
the  deck  of  the  Mayflower,  or  any  other  naval  vessel,  and 
when  he  passes,  on  the  Mayflower,  between  the  lines  of  naval 
vessels  on  review  he  gets  it  from  every  ship  in  the  fleet,  not 
one  by  one,  but  altogether,  so  I  think  I  know  what  a  naval 
battle  sounds  like. 

Shortly  after  we  returned  from  our  little  cruise  on  the 
Maine  Coast  we  received  a  visit  from  the  President  of  Chili, 
Senor  Montt,  and  Senora  Montt.  He  was  on  his  way  to 
Europe,  having  been  ordered  abroad  on  account  of  ill  health. 
He  stopped  in  New  York  at  the  request  of  his  government, 
and  at  Mr.  Taft's  invitation  came  to  Beverly  to  pay  his 
official  respects  to  the  President  of  the  United  States.  He 
made  the  trip  to  Boston  by  special  train  and  was  there  met 
by  the  Mayflower  and  by  Captain  Butt. 

President  Montt  was  very  ill  indeed.  On  the  way  down 
to  Beverly  he  had  a  heart  attack  which  alarmed  everybody 

386 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

and  made  it  seem  very  probable  that  he  would  not  be  able 
to  land.  But  he  recovered  sufficiently  to  become  the  most 
cheerful  and  confident  member  of  the  party  and  we  found 
him  and  Sefiora  Montt  to  be  among  the  most  delightful 
of  all  the  distinguished  visitors  we  had  the  pleasure  of  en- 
tertaining during  our  term  in  the  Presidency.  After  the 
ceremonious  presentation  and  the  exchange  of  international 
compliments  were  disposed  of  they  took  luncheon  with  us 
and  we  spent  several  most  interesting  and  memorable  hours 
together.  The  members  of  his  numerous  entourage  for 
whom  there  was  no  room  in  our  modest  summer  cottage  were 
entertained  at  luncheon  on  board  by  Captain  Logan  of  the 
Mayflower  and  by  Captain  Butt.  We  were  told  afterward 
that  they  managed  to  create  quite  an  entente  cordial^  toast- 
ing each  other's  Presidents  and  armies  and  navies  and  minis- 
ters and  attaches  and  everybody  else  they  could  think  of 
with  great  enthusiasm  and  gusto.  Senor  Montt  died  a  week 
later  just  as  he  reached  England  on  his  health-seeking  trip. 
In  his  death  Chili  lost  an  eminent  citizen. 

Mr.  Taft  remained  with  us  at  Beverly,  playing  golf,  at- 
tending to  routine  business,  seeing  the  never-ending  line  of 
visitors  and  preparing  speeches  until  September  when  there 
began  for  him  one  of  those  whirlwind  seasons,  so  many  of 
which  he  had  lived  through.  With  a  printed  itinerary  in 
his  pocket  he  was  off  from  Boston  on  the  third  of  Septem- 
ber to  attend  the  Conservation  Congress  at  St.  Paul.  With 
two  speeches  to  be  delivered,  one  at  the  Congress  and  one 
at  the  State  Fair  in  Minneapolis,  to  say  nothing  of  another 
in  Chicago  and  numerous  short  speeches  from  the  rear  plat- 
form of  his  train,  he  was  still  back  in  Boston  on  the  eighth 
to  be  present  at  an  aviation  meet  where  together  we  saw  the 
performance  of  the  best  aviators  of  that  day. 

A  short  interval  of  rest  and  he  was  away  again  to  New 
Haven  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the  Yale  Corporation,  then 

387 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

out  to  Cincinnati  to  the  Ohio  Valley  Exposition  and  back 
to  Washington  as  quickly  as  a  long  programme  of  speeches 
and  hospitalities  could  be  disposed  of. 

The  political  skies  were  then  beginning  to  cloud  up  in 
earnest;  he  had  a  Democratic  Congress  to  prepare  messages 
for,  and  I  suppose  the  approaching  winter  looked  anything 
but  alluring  to  him. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  Executive  Mansion 
it  was  turned  into  a  bachelors'  hall  during  my  various  ab- 
sences. My  husband  always  had  one  or  more  men  staying 
with  him,  he  would  move  his  aides  and  secretaries  into  the 
White  House,  and  so  arrange  things  that  my  frequent  de- 
sertions of  him  never  weighed  very  heavily  on  my  conscience. 

When  he  arrived  in  Washington  this  time  he  organised  a 
Cabinet  House  Party  so  that  Washington  and  the  newspaper 
correspondents  had  something  to  worry  about  for  quite  a 
while.  He  gathered  all  the  members  of  his  Cabinet  under 
his  roof  and  kept  them  there  where  he  could  have  three  Cabi- 
net meetings  a  day  besides  the  ones  he  called  in  the  Execu- 
tive Offices.  People  made  wild  guesses  at  all  kinds  of 
crises  and  at  all  manner  of  important  disclosures  to  be  made, 
but  it  was  only  a  house  party  after  all.  There  were  a  great 
many  problems  to  be  solved,  proposed  legislative  meas- 
ures to  be  discussed,  and  with  every  woman  in  the  Cabinet 
off  summering  somewhere  it  was  an  excellent  opportunity 
for  the  Executive  branch  of  the  Government  to  do  extra 
work. 

The  distinguished  gentlemen  had  to  "double  up"  in  rooms, 
too,  so  I  have  often  imagined  that  they  got  very  little  rest 
at  any  time.  The  Secretary  of  State  and  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  had  the  southeast  room;  the  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  had  the  northeast 
room ;  the  Attorney  General  and  the  Secretary  of  Commerce 
and  Labour  had  the  northwest  room ;  the  Postmaster  General 
had  Robert's  room;  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  had  the 

388 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

housekeeper's  room,  and  the  Secretary  to  the  President  had 
my  son  Charlie's  room.  I  think  probably  as  a  house  party 
it  was  unique,  but  if  there  had  been  any  more  Departments 
of  Government  the  President  would  have  had  to  fit  up  a 
dormitory. 

At  this  point  in  Archie  Butt's  record  I  find  the  note: 
"Mrs.  Taft  left  this  morning  for  New  York  to  fit  her  son 
Charlie  out  in  long  trousers." 

That  brings  up  unpleasant  memories.  Like  any  sensible 
woman  I  never  would  admit  that  I  had  reached  the  high 
point  in  life  as  long  as  I  had  one  son  still  in  knickerbockers, 
but  with  one  son  at  Yale,  with  a  young  lady  daughter  ready 
to  be  presented  to  society,  and  with  Charlie  going  into  long 
trousers  I  felt  that  the  day  was  approaching  when  the  un- 
happy phrase  "getting  on  in  years"  might  be  applied  to  me. 

The  very  rapid  lengthening  of  Charlie's  legs  had  been  a 
subject  of  much  discussion  at  Beverly  during  the  summer  and 
the  necessity  for  bestowing  upon  him  the  dignity  of  man- 
style  garments  had  been  manifest  to  everybody  sometime  be- 
fore I  would  consent  to  recognise  it. 

One  day  the  telephone  rang  and  Helen  answered  it.  A 
voice  at  the  other  end  of  the  line  said : 

"I'd  like  to  speak  to  Master  Charlie  Taft,  please." 

"Somebody  wants  to  speak  to  you,  Charlie,"  said  Helen. 
Then  sister-like  she  stood  by  to  see  who  it  was  and  what  he 
could  possibly  want  with  her  unimportant  younger  brother. 
She  was  surprised  to  hear  this  half  of  a  very  earnest  con- 
versation : 

"Who  said  so<?" 

"Certainly  not!" 

"Well,  somebody  has  been  giving  you  misinformation." 

"An  absolute  denial." 

"Well,  if  you  want  to  quote  me  exactly  you  may  say  that 
I  said  the  rumour  is  false;  wholly  without  foundation." 

"All  right.     Good-bye." 

389 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

Helen  was  sufficiently  startled  to  place  Charlie  under 
cross-examination  at  once.  She  had  visions  of  grave  com- 
plications wherein  he  played  the  unfortunate  part  of  a  Presi- 
dent's son  who  had  forgotten  the  rigid  discretion  exacted  of 
him  by  the  nature  of  his  position. 

Charlie  admitted  that  it  was  a  reporter  who  had  called 
him  up. 

"Couldn't  you  tell  that  from  the  way  I  talked  to  him*?" 
said  he. 

He  had  heard  enough  such  conversations  to  have  acquired 
the  natural  "tone,"  but  he  insisted  that  the  subject  of  his 
conversation  with  his  reporter  was  "purely  personal"  and 
had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  his  sister  nor  yet  with  any 
matters  of  high  importance  to  the  Government. 

The  question  had  to  be  referred  to  the  President,  his 
father,  before  he  would  admit  that  the  reporter  wanted  to 
write  something  about  his  going  into  long  trousers. 

"And  if  that  isn't  a  personal  matter,"  said  he,  "I  should 
like  to  know  what  is." 

To  his  intense  delight,  his  "absolute  denial"  to  the  con- 
trary notwithstanding,  I  fitted  him  out,  kissed  my  baby 
good-bye  and  sent  a  young  man  son  off  to  school  in  his  stead, 
feeling  vaguely  thankful  that  I  should  have  until  Christmas 
to  get  used  to  the  thought  of  him  before  having  to  see 
him  again. 

Shortly  afterward  I  returned  to  the  White  House  and 
to  the  routine  of  a  social  season.  The  Cabinet  officers  having 
all  gone  to  their  respective  homes  we  gave  the  Cabinet 
Dinner  with  all  its  accustomed  formalities,  then  came  mus- 
icals, luncheons,  small  dinners,  teas  and  parties  of  various 
sorts  until  near  the  end  of  the  year  when  I  introduced  my 
daughter  to  society. 

Helen  had  gone  out  in  Washington  and  had  attended  my 
entertainments  during  the  winter  of  1909  whenever  she  had 
been  at  home  from  college  and  when  I  was  ill  had  even  acted 

390 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

as  hostess  in  my  place  at  a  dinner  we  gave  for  Prince  and 
Princess  Fushimi  of  Japan,  but  she  had  never  "come  out," 
so  I  gave  two  parties  early  in  the  winter  of  1910  in  honor 
of  her  debut. 

We  began  with  an  afternoon  At  Home,  for  which,  as  my 
daughter  says  she  "got  all  the  flowers  there  were  in  Washing- 
ton," and  later  I  gave  a  ball  on  the  night  of  December  3oth, 
when  the  East  Room  was  filled  with  hundreds  of  young 
people  clamouring  for  "just  one  more  dance"  until  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning. 

The  New  Year's  Reception  was  followed  in  quick  succes- 
sion by  the  Diplomatic,  Congressional,  Judicial  and  other 
state  functions;  the  winter  passed  like  a  dream;  the  Gar- 
den Party  season  was  upon  us ;  then  came  the  greatest  event 
of  our  four  years  in  the  White  House,  our  Silver  Wedding. 

Twenty-five  years  married  and  all  but  a  single  year  of 
it  spent  in  the  public  service.  It  did  not  seem  unfitting  to  me 
that  this  anniversary  should  be  spent  in  the  White  House  or 
that  we  should  seek  to  make  it  an  event  not  to  be  forgotten 
by  anybody  who  happened  to  witness  it.  I  thanked  the 
happy  fate  that  had  given  me  a  summer  wedding-day  be- 
cause I  needed  all  outdoors  for  the  kind  of  party  I  wanted 
to  give.  That  silver  was  showered  upon  us  until  we  were 
almost  buried  in  silver  was  incidental;  we  couldn't  help  it; 
it  was  our  twenty-fifth  anniversary  and  we  had  to  celebrate 
It. 

I  am  not  going  to  try  to  remember  or  to  take  the  trouble 
to  find  out  how  many  invitations  we  issued.  I  know  there 
were  four  or  five  thousand  people  present  and  that  a  more 
brilliant  throng  was  never  gathered  in  this  country. 

It  was  a  night  garden  party  with  such  illuminations  as  are 
quite  beyond  description.  Every  tree  and  bush  was  ablaze 
with  myriads  of  tiny  coloured  lights,  the  whole  stately  man- 
sion was  outlined  in  a  bright  white  glow;  there  were  strings 
of  bobbing,  fantastic  lanterns  wherever  a  string  would  go; 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

the  great  fountain  was  playing  at  its  topmost  height  in 
every  colour  of  the  rainbow ;  while  on  the  gleaming  point  of 
the  Monument  and  on  the  flag  stretched  in  the  breeze  from 
the  staff  on  the  top  of  the  White  House  shone  the  steady 
gleam  of  two  searchlights. 

My  husband  and  I  received  the  almost  endless  line  of 
guests  under  a  large  tree  about  midway  between  the  South 
Portico  and  the  fountain;  the  entire  house  was  thrown  open 
and  was  filled  constantly  with  people  seeking  the  refresh- 
ment tables  laid  in  the  dining  rooms  and  vestibule.  I  have 
a  right  to  be  enthusiastic  in  my  memory  of  that  party  be- 
cause without  enthusiasm  it  could  not  have  been  given  at  all. 
And  why  should  not  one  be  frankly  grateful  for  success? 

With  the  passing  of  another  season,  in  no  way  different 
from  those  that  went  before,  I  come  to  the  end  of  my  story. 
There  is  another  story  to  tell,  longer  and  fuller,  but  it  does 
not  belong  to  me.  It  belongs  to  the  man  whose  career  has 
made  my  story  worth  the  telling. 

After  Mr.  Taft  was  renominated,  or  rather  after  the  sec- 
ond convention  in  Chicago  when  the  Republican  party  was 
divided,  I  began  to  make  plans  for  the  future  in  which  the 
White  House  played  no  part.  I  stopped  reading  the  ac- 
counts of  the  bitter  political  contest  because  I  found  that 
the  opposition  newspapers  made  so  much  more  impression 
on  me  than  those  that  were  friendly  to  my  husband  that  I 
was  in  a  state  of  constant  rage  which  could  do  me  no  pos- 
sible good. 

Mr.  Taft  had  never  been  subjected  to  bitter  criticism  and 
wholesale  attack  until  his  term  in  the  Presidency  and  I  sup- 
pose I  had  formed  a  habit  of  thinking  that  there  was  nothing 
to  criticise  him  for  except,  perhaps,  his  unfortunate  shortcom- 
ing of  not  knowing  much  and  of  caring  less  about  the  way 
the  game  of  politics  is  played.  Such  criticism  of  him  as 
Mr.  Bryan's  supporters  were  able  to  create  for  their  use  in 
1908  amounted  to  nothing.  His  record  of  twenty  years' 

392 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

uncriticised  service  stood,  and  he  stood  on  it.  I  think  we 
both  avoided  much  perturbation  after  we  became  convinced 
of  the  unfairness  and  injustice  of  much  that  was  said  by 
hostile  newspapers,  by  not  reading  it.  Mr.  Taft  took  much 
satisfaction  from  those  words  of  Lincoln's  which  Mr.  Nor- 
ton, his  Secretary,  had  photographed  and  placed  in  a  frame 
on  his  office  desk: 

"If  I  were  to  try  to  read,  much  less  answer,  all  the  attacks 
made  on  me  this  shop  might  as  well  be  closed  for  any  other 
business.  I  do  the  very  best  I  know  how — the  very  best  I 
can;  and  I  mean  to  keep  on  doing  so  until  the  end.  If  the 
end  brings  me  out  all  right,  what  is  said  against  me  won't 
amount  to  anything.  If  the  end  brings  me  out  wrong,  ten 
angels  swearing  I  was  right  would  make  no  difference." 

I  wanted  him  to  be  re-elected,  naturally,  but  I  never  en- 
tertained the  slightest  expectation  of  it  and  only  longed  for 
the  end  of  the  turmoil  when  he  could  rest  his  weary  mind 
and  get  back  into  association  with  the  pleasant  things  of 
life.  Fortunately  we  are  a  family  that  laughs.  Both  Mr. 
Taft  and  the  children  manage  to  get  some  fun  out  of  almost 
everything,  and  I  and  my  matter-of-factness  have  afforded 
them  life-long  amusement.  They  like  now  to  tell  a  story 
about  me  which  doesn't  impress  me  as  being  particularly 
funny. 

During  the  last  campaign  I  was  at  Beverly  alone  a  good 
part  of  the  summer,  but  when  Mr.  Taft  did  join  me  for 
short  intervals  he  brought  Republican  Headquarters  with 
him,  more  or  less,  and  a  few  political  supporters  were  sure 
to  follow  for  consultation  with  him. 

There  was  one  good  old  enthusiastic  friend  who  had  al- 
ways supported  him  and  who  was  then  making  a  valiant 
fight  in  his  behalf.  And  he  had  faith  that  they  would  win. 
He  assured  me  they  would  win.  He  told  me  how  they  were 
going  to  do  it,  pointing  out  where  Mr.  Taft's  strength  lay 
and  telling  me  how  kindly  the  people  really  felt  toward  him. 

393 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

"Mrs.  Taft,  you  mark  my  word,"  said  he,  "the  President 
will  be  re-elected  in  November!" 

"Well,"  said  I,  "you  may  be  right,  but  just  the  same  I 
intend  to  pack  everything  up  when  I  leave  Beverly,  and  I 
shall  take  the  linen  and  silver  home." 

•  ••••••• 

At  a  dinner  given  by  the  Lotos  Club  in  New  York,  just 
ten  days  after  Mr.  Wilson's  election  in  1912,  Mr.  Taft 
said: 

"The  legend  of  the  lotos  eaters  was  that  if  they  partook 
of  the  fruit  of  the  lotos  tree  they  forgot  what  had  happened 
in  their  country  and  were  left  in  a  state  of  philosophic  calm 
in  which  they  had  no  desire  to  return  to  it. 

"I  do  not  know  what  was  in  the  mind  of  your  distin- 
guished invitation  committee  when  I  was  asked  to  attend 
this  banquet.  They  came  to  me  before  election.  At  first 
I  hesitated  to  accept  lest  when  the  dinner  came  I  should  be 
shorn  of  interest  as  a  guest  and  be  changed  from  an  active 
and  virile  participant  in  the  day's  doings  of  the  Nation  to 
merely  a  dissolving  view.  I  knew  that  generally  on  an  oc- 
casion of  this  sort  the  motive  of  the  diners  was  to  have  a 
guest  whose  society  should  bring  them  more  closely  into  con- 
tact with  the  great  present  and  the  future  and  not  be  merely 
a  reminder  of  what  has  been.  But,  after  further  considera- 
tion, I  saw  in  the  name  of  your  club  the  possibility  that  you 
were  not  merely  cold,  selfish  seekers  after  pleasures  of  your 
own,  and  that  perhaps  you  were  organised  to  furnish  con- 
solation to  those  who  mourn,  oblivion  to  those  who  would 
forget,  an  opportunity  for  a  swan  song  to  those  about  to 
disappear.  .  .  . 

"The  Presidency  is  a  great  office  to  hold.  It  is  a  great 
honour  and  it  is  surrounded  with  much  that  makes  it  full  of 
pleasure  and  enjoyment  for  the  occupant,  in  spite  of  its 
heavy  responsibilities  and  the  shining  mark  that  it  presents 
for  misrepresentation  and  false  attack.  .  .  .  Of  course  the 

394 


RECOLLECTIONS  OF  FULL  YEARS 

great  and  really  the  only  lasting  satisfaction  that  one  can 
have  in  the  administration  of  the  great  office  of  President  is 
the  thought  that  one  has  done  something  permanently  useful 
to  his  fellow  countrymen.  The  mere  enjoyment  of  the 
tinsel  of  office  is  ephemeral,  and  unless  one  can  fix  one's 
memory  on  real  progress  made  through  the  exercise  of  pres- 
idential power  there  is  little  real  pleasure  in  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  holding  of  that  or  any  other  office,  however  great 
its  power  or  dignity  or  high  its  position  in  the  minds  of  men. 
"I  beg  you  to  believe  that  in  spite  of  the  very  emphatic 
verdict  by  which  I  leave  the  office,  I  cherish  only  the  deepest 
gratitude  to  the  American  people  for  having  given  me  the 
honour  of  having  held  the  office,  and  I  sincerely  hope  in 
looking  back  over  what  has  been  done  that  there  is  enough 
of  progress  made  to  warrant  me  in  the  belief  that  real  good 
has  been  accomplished,  even  though  I  regret  that  it  has  not 
been  greater.  My  chief  regret  is  my  failure  to  secure  from 
the  Senate  the  ratification  of  the  general  arbitration  treaties 
with  France  and  Great  Britain.  I  am  sure  they  would  have 
been  great  steps  toward  general  world  peace.  What  has 
actually  been  done  I  hope  has  helped  the  cause  of  peace,  but 
ratification  would  have  been  a  concrete  and  substantial  step. 
I  do  not  despair  of  ultimate  success.  We  must  hope  and 
work  on." 


THE    END 


395 


1  '.R 


THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SANTA  CRUZ 

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